Clapp for Joy

We Call Her the Bug

2012-01-27T21:33:00.004-05:00

This week we went out of town together for training with my work. It is so nice to be back home! Eliza did not sleep so well in the hotel (this includes but is not limited to taking up the whole bed shared with her mother, burrowing her head into her mother's back during sleep, waking up screaming inconsolably really loudly, and so on) but she did have fun hanging out with her daddy while I was in class. We're glad to be home and back to our regular schedule.

we have been enjoying watching Eliza's personality come out more and more lately. She talks a lot and is really funny.

Some things I want to remember are:

- She loves her friends and always asks about them on days she doesn't go to daycare.
- She loves bananas oatmeal yogurt oranges and cheese.
- She has started calling me mommy sometimes instead of mama. It's a sweet sound.
-She loves to read. Her favorite book right now is The Very Hungry Caterpillar. She loves to say the names of the
food he eats and say he is still "hun-gee". It is the cutest thing I have ever heard.
- She loves her baby dolls and talks to them a lot. The other day she put Kase's shoes on her baby and walked her around the house saying "walking walking"

Now don't get me wrong she isn't a little angel. We have entered into our toddler tantrum phase (I hope it is a phase). This makes shopping and eating out a little difficult. Yes, we are those people with the screaming kid that you wish would just get lost. But for the most part she isn't too bad. As long as we make sure she isn't tired or too hungry we can make it through. (along with a stock of plenty of snacks, toys, and books.)

But no matter how frustrated we can get with her all she has to do is say one sweet mommy, daddy, or hun-gee and we melt. She is worth all the ruined trips to target, and that says a lot.

She makes us so happy.

Hello 2012

2012-01-19T20:15:00.000-05:00

This year I hope to:

- Attend the temple more often.
- Continue reading.
- Take more pictures.
- Be better about recording our memories.
- Be more positive.

This year so far we have:
- Welcomed a new nephew into the world. Cute little Olsen Creed at 2 lbs 15 oz and he is going strong.
- Eliza had an ultrasound on her kidney to see if the blockage in her ureter is still there. (She has had it since birth but it is getting better.) It has not cleared up yet but we are hoping that it will.
- Finally got my car into the repair shop from the wreck I was in back in November.
- Gotten sick a lot, but that just means more snuggle time at home.

So far the first 19 days have been pretty good!

Goodbye 2011

2012-01-18T18:07:00.002-05:00

It feels as if I blinked and 2011 was over. I remember thinking at a July 4th get together that it felt like we just had New Years 2011. Then the next thing I knew it was Christmas. They say time seems to go by faster as you age and your children will grow up in a blink of an eye, I believe it!

2011 in review:
- January- We started 2011 with a smiley 6 month old who could sit up really well. We also had several snow days. I went from being a contract employee to a federal employee.

- February- Eliza had a 23 hour EEG to check on her weird "posing" (which she still does sometimes) it came out OK with no signs of seisures, but the EEG was miserable.

- March: I began my last year as a "twenty-something" and Eliza learned how to crawl.

- April: I worked a lot in preparation for our office's evaluation. Kase and Eliza accompanied me on a work training trip to South Carolina. We had fun eating out and playing in our hotel room. I also finally started going to a book club. More on that later.

- May: Thanks to our neighbor and friend "P" Eliza learned to walk. During church, P was playing with a ball. Eliza figured out how to walk with the ball and she has been going ever since.
Kase's job was really slow and he was not getting many hours, but we made it through.

- June: Eliza turned one! She had a fun owl themed birthday party.

- July: We played a lot outside. Kase turned 28. In an effort to be more productive and money smart, we canceled cable. (This was big for us as we love to watch tv, BUT we have not missed it!)

- August: Kase and I celebrated our 5th anniversary with our first night away from Eliza. It was nice to sleep in and relax. But we missed her. Eliza began talking a lot!

- September: I took a week off just to stay home with Eliza. It was awesome! Eliza was a very pleasant 15 month old.

- October: I switched my work schedule to getting every other Friday off. It has been really nice. Eliza began singing a lot (The Wheels on the Bus and Twinkle Twinkle). We were the Flinstone Family for Halloween.

- November: Eliza entered into the first of her temper tantrums and meltdowns. But we love her any way. We hosted our 1st Thanksgiving and cooked our 1st turkey. It turned out pretty good! I got into a car accident (not my fault!) and fought with the other driver's insurance company for the next month. Booo

- December: We spent a lot of time with family for Christmas. Eliza enjoys singing a lot (Love is Spoken Here, I'm Trying to be Like Jesus, Baa Baa Black Sheep, I Love to See the Temple, I'm a Child of God.) I enjoyed another week off with Eliza, although it went by way too fast!

We had a wonderful year. It is so amazing to me how quickly Eliza is changing and growing. Every new stage is my new favorite. She is our life and our love and we wouldn't change that for anything. Watching her grow up is better than any trip we could take or adventure we could go on. We're excited to experience another year with her.

This year, I have also really enjoyed reading again. What have I read you ask? Let me tell you!
- Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
- The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
- Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand
- The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan
- Dead Tossed Waves by Carrie Ryan
- The Dark and Hollow Places by Carrie Ryan
- Winter Garden by Kristin Hannah
- The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
- Matched by Ally Condie
- The Help by Kathryn Stockett
- The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
- Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
- Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins

My favorite was The Book Thief. Tied for second would be: The Help, The Hunger Games Trilogy, and Unbroken.

I didn't really like the Forest of Hands and Teeth trilogy by Carrie Ryan, but I had to read it once I started.

I hope to keep up reading this year!

Goodbye 2011

PS It is my Daddy's birthday. Just so you know, he is the best. He can fix just about anything. He makes the best smoked turkey and popcorn. He is kind, smart, sweet, and extra cheesy. He is the perfect dad for me. I love you Daddy!

A Very Belated Christmas Post

2012-01-16T18:45:00.008-05:00

This Christmas we spent a lot of time with family. Unfortunately, I did not spend a lot of time taking pictures. But I did get a few.

We had Kase's side of the family came over for an early Christmas party. This is Eliza and her 3 cousins. It is really hard to get a picture of 4 kids.

This year we spent actual Christmas with my side of the family. It was nice to relax and hang out. My brother hung out with us quite a bit and it was a real treat. I have a few more pictures of Christmas morning but I figure people don't like being on the internet in their pajamas. So those will not be posted on here. Eliza got a new baby that she is very fond of. But I think the biggest surprise was that my brother and his wife got Eliza a pink VW power wheel! We were all shocked and amazed. Eliza immediately loved it. She doesn't know how to drive it but she loves to sit in it. At home, she feels safe in her car and loves to sit in it while I vacuum. (She is really scared of the vacuum.) When we made it back to Knoxville, we had a 3rd Christmas with just the 3 of us! Our tree: Eliza ran immediately to her little people barn, but she also loved her kitchen (I may have found it on the side of the road, cleaned it up, and it's as good as new!)Kase got an ornament for his 2010 graduation. It's a little guy holding a camera. So cute.

Eliza also likes her rocking horse. We had a wonderful Christmas!

New Year's resolution: take more pictures!

Eliza 18 Months and Our Picture Fiasco

2011-12-13T20:44:00.000-05:00

So recently it has been very hard to get pictures of Eliza. She won't stop moving and she is very tempermental. If she is hungry, tired, overexcited, or {insert any random thing here} she may have a melt down.

But alas, I chose to ignore these things and try to get her picture taken for her 18 month mark/Christmas. Let's just say it was not a pleasant experience.

It was suppose to be a just Eliza photo shoot but she wouldn't let us put her down at first so we had to take a family shot. This is what we got: Not terrible but not great either. Then we were able to bribe her to get on the floor without one of us holding her. BUT she wouldn't be still. So the best shot we got was her running around. This is the best one from the whole session I think:

Did I mention that our photographer was not great with kids? She kept trying to get Eliza to smile but was just making Eliza mad. I told her to just take photos. Even if she is upset, it could still turn out to be a funny picture. That's the joy of digital pictures. You don't run out of film! But the photographer would only take them if she thought Eliza was smiling. Also, the camera's battery died TWICE during the couple of times she was happy. So the photographer had to have another person come in to try and get Eliza to smile. He actually did a great job getting her to smile, but he did not do a great job of staying out of the shot. This is the result: It would have been a great picture if she had a soccer uniform on. I am just saying.

Next up? More running around. Cute baby:And finally a smile. Although the camera is a bit out of focus. Really I think I just need their lighting and their camera and I could take better pictures. Grumble grumble. Then came the straw that broke the camera's back. They have this super cute prop where you put on a santa's sleeve and glove, and hold a fake plate with plastic cookies and plastic milk glass. so it looks like the kid is handing santa the cookies/milk. It's a cool idea except to a 1 year old. Eliza thought she was getting milk and cookies. She was determined to get those cookies off of that plate. It was very frustrating to her that she couldn't get them. Then when they took the props away she was done. She had a giant melt down. I felt kind of bad because from her perspective it was like we were offering her some cookies, and then took them away. Oh and did I mention that they had blocked the lighting lamp so the picture is really dark? Awesome.

So we were able to bribe Eliza with a few snacks and got one more half-a-smile out of her.

They had to crop out the snacks held tightly in her hands. She is still cute.

At 18 Months, Eliza:

- Sings a lot. Her current favorites are "Jingle Bells," "Ring Around the Rosey," "Patty Cake," "ABCs" and "I love to see the temple." She came home from daycare yesterday singing "Baa Baa Black Sheep." The words were a little confusing but she had the tune right.

- If she wants you to come with her she will wave you towards her and say "Mon, Mon" for Come On.

- She eats pretty good but still won't eat meat.

- She sleeps like a champ. She has me rock her a little bit while we sing. She will snuggle with me on most nights, and then she'll sit up and say "bed." Then it is time for me to put her in bed.

- First word in the morning is Daddy or Kase. Yes, she calls him Kase sometimes. She thinks the shower in our bathroom is Daddy's Bath because he is usually in there when I get her up in the mornings.

- She gives sweet kisses. Sometimes she will randomly come and kiss me and I melt.

- She loves to find things. Like if she looses her sippy cup she'll say "Cuuup, Where are you cuuup" with her hands turned palm side up.

- She loves her baby dolls or her "Babies" as she calls them.

- She also loves to read her books.

- She loves other kids. She is not good at sharing yet but she will often ask for other kids from daycare or church by their names.

- She weighs 26 lbs 1.5 oz and is 32 inches tall.

She is a very feisty, loving, and sweet girl. She makes our lives better. We so enjoy watching her learn and grow. She is such a blessing and we are so glad we have her.

A Belated Thanksgiving Post

2011-12-13T19:25:00.000-05:00

I hate to skip over a Thanksgiving post. This year, I didn't take many pictures.

We had a great Thanksgiving though. This year we spent Thanksgiving with Kase's side of the family. Due to some events scheduled around the holiday, we hosted Thanksgiving this year. If you know me, you know cooking is not my favorite thing to do. But it was actually very fun! We cooked our first turkey. I was a bit nervous, but it turned out pretty tastey if I do say so myself! Everyone brought something delicous: Cheesy Potatoes, this mandarin orange thing Kase's mom makes that I love but I have no idea how to spell the name, mac n cheese, mashed potatoes, and the best homemade apple pie I have ever tasted.

We spent the day visiting and eating. I think there may have been some football watching.

Eliza woke up that morning to help me prep the food but before all of the family came over she was ready for a nap. She napped from 11:45 till 4:30!! I kept checking on her to make sure she was OK. It turned out she had a low fever, probably a sinus infection of some sort. She needed the rest. Meanwhile, I kind of enjoyed being able to feast on the yummy food with out any interruptions.

It was a wonderful day. I am so thankful for my family. My in-law family is the best any one could ask for.

Remember That Time......

2011-12-10T21:59:00.003-05:00

That I WON a Give Away?!!!! I DO!!!!

I am super excited!

My choice you ask?

A pretty little something that looks something like this:

You should get one for yourself! Shop here!

PS A belated Thanksgiving post is to come. Plus an 'Eliza is 18 Months' post is on it's way. I am so behind.

Give Away

2011-12-05T22:35:00.002-05:00

I am a sucker for a good give away.

Want to win something?

Go to http://ammeandneb.blogspot.com/ for your chance to win a super cool item.

I really like the "Love is Spoken Here" Pillows and the "All is Calm All is Bright" Pillows.

Oh who am I kidding?

I love it all!

Food for the Soul

2011-11-02T22:55:00.000-04:00

As you probably know I am a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, aka a Mormon. My faith is a very large part of my life. It shapes the way I think, what decisions I make, the clothes I wear, and so much more. I have many friends who are not Mormons. We have different beliefs and that is perfectly fine. Sometimes we venture into discussions, agree to disagree, and still love each other just the same. I think that is how it should be. I am not here to judge you, or to force my beliefs onto you.

Growing up, I had a good friend of another faith. I don’t want to mention names so we will call the church "X". Her mother would not allow her to come with me to church. Her church had classes about what Mormons believe and how we are bad. I find that so interesting. Why would you go to X church to learn about another church? It just doesn’t make sense. Just like the in media recently with the whole big hoopla about people saying Mormons are not Christians. I don’t know why someone who is not Mormon would have any knowledge or authority to tell others what Mormons believe. I would never ask a non-catholic what Catholics believe. I have always been taught that most every church has something good about them.

So today, my very good friend invited me to go to a church across the street from my work. They do a weekly lunch with a short sermon. I will admit, I was only going because of the cheap delicious food (which by the way was really good.) But I also really enjoyed the sermon. (Even though it was kind of a plug for the guys book which was a little weird to me.) He talked about restlessness. How sometimes we always look for more, wish we had more or that things were better/different. The "grass is greener" philosophy. He talked about how this restlessness can be a strength in that you are always trying to improve what you are doing. That can be a good thing. However, you need to be grateful for the blessings that you do have. I have been feeling like that lately. There are several things in my life that I wish would improve. Lately, I have felt a little selfish and like I am not counting my blessings but focusing on what I don’t have. Instead of being happy that I have a sweet husband, a beautiful daughter, a warm home, and a wonderful job; I have been focusing on needed house repairs, almost broken down cars, money that we don’t have, and time that I have to spend away from my daughter. The man at the sermon talked about how instead of being restless, we should strive for patience with hope and faith that things will get better. I know that the Lord is aware of me and my life. I know that it is in His hands and things will go on His time. I need to be open to His guidance, and in the meantime focus on being happy with what I have.

Between a wiggling toddler and having a calling in the nursery, it is sometimes hard for me to listen to messages at church. I guess the Lord found me where he could. It was a much needed reminder for my life. I am glad that I ventured across the street for some fried chicken.

Yaba daba dooooo

2011-11-01T17:25:00.003-04:00

My friend Holly had our friend Mayemma make this awesome onesie for E. Isn't it the cutest? It's her face on it and everytime I see it I crack up. Made my day.

We've had a great Halloween. We went to the church Trunk 'r Treat. Eliza was terrified and wouldn't get down. But we had fun anyways. We also went to our awesome family's Halloween party that was a blast. Eliza ate so much sugar she was walking backwards and squealing.

On the actual day of halloween, Eliza trick 'r treated at her daycare, had a halloween party, and got to come trick 'r treat at my work. One lady was giving out whole full-sized candy bars. Eliza was smart and picked out a snickers because she knows what mommy likes. Our friend Holly, or Holla as Eliza calls her, came over and spent Halloween evening with us. Eliza was so tired from her day that she was ready for bed and we never made it out for neighborhood trick 'r treating. So after Eliza went to bed, Kase, Holly, our awesome neighbor Owen (We missed you Brianna), and I sat out by our bonfire and handed out candy. It was fun.

We had a lot of trick or treaters and it was fun. This was my first time handing out a lot of candy to kids. The little ones were so cute. The big teenagers sometimes creepy but usually nice. I made each kid say "trick or treat." Some of them acted like they didn't know they were suppose to say it. One older kid walked up and held out his bag, and I said "What do you say?" He looked really confused and said "Ummm... Please?" While I am glad he was at least polite I was like "NO you say Trick or Treat." He was a teenager, he should at least know that. What is wrong with kids these days? We had a really good time.

I have more pictures but I am too lazy to upload them so I just stole these from other people.

Hope everyone had a happy Halloween!

The Pumpkin Patch

2011-10-25T18:52:00.000-04:00

A couple of weeks ago, Eliza and I went to a pumpkin patch with our friends B and J. The kids were a little too young for some of the stuff but I think they had a lot of fun.

Eliza loved running around without having to hold hands. She headed straight for the pony ride. I tried to get good pictures but someone wouldn't be still long enough. Or smile. Or look at the camera. The wind kept blowing her hair everywhere. Don't judge me. Her hair usually looks a little less crazy. (Please reference hair comment above.)

Eliza really liked the bunny. She also liked the goats, but wouldn't pet them. I am OK with that. Then we walked over to the hayride and went out to the pumpkin patch.Eliza picked a big pumpkin to go with her small pumpkin at home. She tried to pick it up but it was a little heavier than her pumkin at home. We had a really fun time. J was so sweet to Eliza. He kept asking "Where Eliza go?" when she would fall behind. The last time we went somewhere with them, J gave Eliza his blanket in the car in case she got cold. He is so cute. I wish I had a better picture of them together. I guess we will have to hang out again!

My Little Pumpkin

2011-10-24T18:10:00.002-04:00

At the begginning of October, I bought Eliza a small baby pumpkin from the farmer's market. She loves that pumpkin.

She likes to give the pumpkin kisses (don't worry I washed it first.)

The pumpkin makes her giggle.

She likes to carry the pumpkin around the house.

She likes to carry it around with her outside too.

She loves her little pumpkin.

And I love my little pumpkin.

This picture has nothing to do with this post. I just liked this outfit. Couldn't get her to be still long enough for a picture though.

Update: Uh Oh Spaghetti-Oh

2011-10-03T23:55:00.000-04:00

Life has been super busy lately. Not enough time to blog. But I want to remember a few happenings of late. So here is a quick, not so well written update post.

Eliza has been changing so much lately. She repeats a lot of words. She has started her 1 year old class at daycare and seems to like it. This week she started not crying when I drop her off and she seems really excited to see her teachers and friends.

Funny Eliza events:
- I forgot to pack her nap mat sheet and nap blanket for daycare yesterday. At nap time they used an extra sheet and blanket they had. When they asked her to lay down to take a nap she looked at the sheet and looked back at them like she new that was not her stuff. They did finally get her to nap but she wasn't happy about it. She is either a creature of habit or she just really likes to nap in stylish sheets.

- Thanks to Kase's training lessons she now says "uh oh spaghetti oh" although it sounds like "uh oh spateteti."

- This past weekend I discovered that when asked she can say certain sounds that animals make. A Lion "roars" (but in a whispering voice), a cat "meooowws," a cow "mooooos," and a dog "ruff ruffs."

- I bought her a small pumpkin to learn the color orange and what pumpkins are. She loves her "puttin" and loves to carry it around the house. She also enjoys chewing on the stem. (YUCK.) She also loves to throw it. I am surprised it hasn't busted yet.

- She has certain favorite books including: Good Night Moon, Look Look (it's a black and white book), In My Tree (an owl finger puppet book), and Where's Spot.

- As mentioned before, one of Eliza's favorite books is a lift-the-flap book titled "Where's Spot." Yesterday, she brought it to me saying "Spot Spot Spot Spot." My heart about melted.

She will be 16 months on Thursday and once again, I think this is my favorite age. She is so much fun.

In other happenings, Kase went to wood badge last weekend and really enjoyed it. He will be returning in a couple of weeks to do the other part of the course. I don't really know how all that works but he is having fun.

Also, in Laura news I am changing my work schedule to where in my 2 week pay period I work eight 9 hour days, get one 8 hour day, and have the 1st Friday of the pay period off. So I will have every other Friday off. I am excited about this. Eliza and I will have some fun mommy daughter days ahead.

I am also REALLY excited it is Fall. My favorite time of the year. I already know what we are going to be for Halloween. I will not tell you but I am making our costumes (so don't laugh at them) and it is a family theme. And Eliza is going to look so stinkin cute.

Welp that is about all. The end.

Elizabug

2011-09-16T17:45:00.000-04:00

There are no words to express how much I love my little Bug. She is so fun right now. These are some more pictures from our staycation. She giggles all the time but no smiles for the camera.

"Where is the ball?"

"Where is Eliza?"

She makes us smile. Wouldn't trade her for anything.

Not Anything.

Say Cheese!

The Great WWW.

2011-09-13T20:59:00.000-04:00

While reading this website last night I saw this website.

It is a website where people post pictures of items they would take with them in case of fire. It is neat to see what people think of.

My parents had a house fire once and their dining room table had a large burn scar on it. As a child I was always a little fearful of this. So I have always had a list of things I would grab if I could.

When I lived in an apartment by myself, I would always pray that my building would not catch on fire. Another building in the complex had burned down years ago, and being that the apartments were a little.... old.... I strongly felt that it could be a possibility. Not to mention the fire station seemed to be called out to our area a lot. For a while, I would mentally go through my list before I went to bed at night. Yes, it was a little morbid and a lot weird.

One night, I felt that I should say a special prayer of protection over my apartment. Then sometime in the middle of the night, I awoke to loud sirens outside and a banging on my door. I remember stumbling out the door of my apartment into the hallway. Then down the hallway pushing open the back door. I was filled with shock as I stared at the building behind mine which was engulfed in flames.

Thanfully, no one was hurt in the fire. The building was a total loss, and many people lost their homes. One of my friends lived in the building next to the one that was of fire. Because of the direction of the wind, she had to gather her family and leave for the night just in case her apartment caught on fire. Possessions can be replaced but sometimes it is interesting to think of what you would grab if you could.

My list: MY FAMILY OF COURSE, any scrapbooks I can carry (I worked hard on those), my scriptures (I have marked them just the way I like), the afghan blanket my granny made me, wedding rings, my journal, car keys, wallet, and cellphone.

My list has changed over time. Mostly I would just want to get my family out safely. Also, now that I live in a house that is more than one level, I feel that most of what is on my list would not be feasible to grab in a hurry. (scrapbooks are all the way downstairs so that probably wouldn't happen.)

What is on your list?

So How Was My Week Off You Ask?

2011-09-12T19:03:00.001-04:00

One word:

Awesome.

Eliza and I had the best week off together. (Kase had to work.)

On our event list we:
-visited my parents. Eliza played and played and played. She also was spoiled a lot. It was a good time. I have a good picture from our visit but I have not uploaded the pictures from my real camera yet. She learned to say Memaw and Papaw which comes out "Memaaawww and Papaawww" Hilarious.

- got her some new shoes. She has to start wearing shoes all day in her new class at daycare. So we went shopping. She loves shoes. She also loves running out of the shoe store with new shoes on that we haven't paid for yet.

- We played at the mall's play area. SHE LOVED THIS:
- We found her a new hairstyle. Her first attempt at a pony tail:

- We played and played and played some more.

- Eliza had her 15 month check up. She is 24lbs 5 oz and 30.5 inches of cutentess. She did not like getting shots but she cheered up pretty fast with the help of snacks:

- We accompanied some good friends of ours to the zoo. It was really fun. Although I think I liked looking at the animals more than Eliza did. She did like the squirrels though. And she was able to pet a hedgehog. We had fun. Thank you to our friends! This is us in front of the zebras:

- We also got to hang out with auntie Holly AND go shopping (Eliza got a lot of new clothes) AND sleep in AND make a few yummy dinners for us to enjoy with Kase AND do things around the house that I have been dying to get done. It was a success.

One of the best things about the week was when the day was getting late I felt my daily dread come on of having to leave Eliza the next day, but then I would remember that I didn't have to leave her. That was really nice.

Eliza is growing so fast. At 15 months she:

- Sleeps really well. From 7:30 to 7:30 (8:30 while on vacation!) and takes 2-3 hour naps.

- Talks. A LOT. She also repeats what you say sometimes so becareful. My favorites are: All done, all better, more, blue, open, hola, bath, milk, dog, ruff ruff, ball, night night, and cheese.

- She is finally calling me Mama pretty consistantly. I love it. It melts my heart everytime.

- First thing in the morning when I get her out of bed she asks for Da Da so we have to go looking for him.

- She loves the song popcorn popping and will do the hand signs and say "pop pop."

- She loves to tickle you and gives kisses.

- We were shopping the other day and ran into a friend. Eliza was nervous and wanted me to pick her up out of the shopping cart. I finally gave in and picked her up. She looked at me and patted me on the shoulder and said "ma ma" so sweetly. I thought I would pop.

- She loves to play and play. She will play by herself for quite a while.

- She tries to jump, but only her arms go up.

- When asked "where is Eliza" she points to her head excitedly.

- She can identify nose, mouth, eye (but she almost pokes her and your eyes out), ear (but calls them eyes too), belly, belly button, hair, and feet.

- Folds her arms for prayer (even if it is only for a few seconds) and says "Amen" (even if it is several times really loudly in the middle of church.)

- She is our cute adorable fiesty sweet girl.

I use to not want her to grow bigger, but I find every new stage to be even more fun. I am really enjoying this stage.

Dropping her off at daycare this morning was difficult. BUT she was excited to see her friends and her toys. We had a great week together.

Goodbye Summer Hello Staycation

2011-09-05T21:48:00.013-04:00

Today felt like fall and I loved it.

It made me think about how quickly summer has flown by. I have not kept up with blogging like I wanted to. Here is what we have been up to.

The Fourth of July was fun picnic-ing with friends and swimming. Eliza had the perfect hand-me-down dress, our favorite kind:

Yard sales are one of my favorite things about summer. I picked up this little shopping cart for Eliza. She loves pushing around her dolls:

We ate a lot this summer. Grilling out and eating in. Eating is one of Eliza's favorite activities:
Eliza had a fun time at daycare during the week. However, her friends had a fun time taking a few bites out of her. I guess she is just too sweet:

We visiting my parents house several times. This is Eliza with her mom, memaw, and great memaw:

Did I mention Eliza really likes to eat?

We've had a great summer and we're ready for FALL!!!

PS I am off work this week and I am super excited. I am taking a "staycation" to spend time with my little Elliza bug. This is going to be awesome!!!

5

2011-08-16T19:35:00.001-04:00

Friday, August 12th, was our 5th anniversary! I can't believe we have been together for 5 wonderful years. To celebrate we treated ourselves with a lovely dinner at a fancy restaurant Foothills Milling Company. It was delish.

Then we drove to my parents where they kept Eliza overnight so we could get a mini-break. We had all the grand ideas about picnics and historical site tours... but instead we went shopping, ate junk, watched cable without having to chase around a one year old. It was nice. And for the record, Kase said he missed Eliza before I did. Also for the record, we ended up buying a bunch of random stuff for Eliza and not for us. How does that happen? Anyways. We had a wonderful time relaxing together. Eliza had a wonderful time hanging out with Memaw and Papaw.

On another note, Kase has started his very own blog. It is not as cool as mine but he tries. ha. Just kidding. If you want a lookie head on over and check it out:

http://www.30filmsby30years.blogspot.com/

Bluegrass and a Birthday

2011-08-01T05:45:00.003-04:00

Don't you love when you show up on a Monday morning to work smelling like baby vomit? I know I do.

Mondays come too quickly but we had a great weekend.

Friday we met up with The Gang at a park where a blue grass festival was going on. Eliza enjoyed dancing and walking around in the grass. Unfortunately, thanks to the mosquitos and an over-tired baby who is fighting off a cold, the night didn't last long.

All of my pictures recently happen to be cell phone pictures.

Saturday was spent celebrating my sweet husband's birthday. His parents kindly watched Eliza so that we could go to not one but TWO movies. (Kase does love the movies.) We saw Cowboys and Aliens and Captain America. I liked Captain America. It was pretty good. For lunch we shared a delicous gormet combo meal from the movie theater concessions. (We didn't have time to venture out to get something and after packing everything for Eliza I forgot to pack us food.) But that is OK because we were saving room for dinner at one of Kase's favorites, SilverSpoon. We met my best and oldest (as in years I've known her not in age) friend and her boyfriend who were driving through town for dinner. That was fun until Eliza decided to act like a crazy toddler because she wanted to run around the restrant and I ran out of things to bribe her with. People were staring at me as my child cried and whined. It was awesome. I think she has officially crossed over into toddlerdom. AND our waitress decided to put all 4 of the meals on our card instead of split on the two different cards the two different couples gave her. Grumble grumble. BUT Kase enjoyed his dinner, and I enjoyed seeing my dear friend.

Sunday I woke up with the WORST headache and a terrible crick (however you spell that) in my neck. It was not pleasant. In fact, I still haven't gotten rid of it. But it still ended up being a good day. We celebrated Kase's birthday with tacos for dinner and a red velvet cake I made decorated to look like a movie ticket. It was not my best cake (hence no pictures) but I tried. That is what counts you know.

I hope my husband had a wonderful birthday. He is the sweetest funniest guy I know. He takes such good care of Eliza and me. We love him.

Overall it was a good weekend. We are ready for another one. Only a few more days. :)

The Gang

2011-07-23T20:42:00.004-04:00

'K', 'PS', Eliza and 'PE'

In Eliza's daycare class there are 4 kiddos. They are all June 2010 babies. The three girls live two houses down from each other and the 1 boy lives about 5 minutes away. None of us even knew that we lived next to each other for the first few weeks of daycare time.

We try to get together so they kids can play and so us parents can hang out. Friday we all met at Big Ed's Pizza in Oak Ridge for dinner. It was yummy and the kids entertained each other. I love when Eliza recognizes her friends and waves at them. She even kissed one of them on the mouth. She is a loving little girl.

We had a fun time. I hope Eliza is able to keep in touch with these friends as they all grow up.

On Friday, Eliza also got to spend some time with her Aunt Holly. Eliza is very lucky to have so many people who love her.

Best thing about Saturday: Eliza was ready to go to bed so I leaned her down to Kase so she could give him kisses and she spit up all over his face. It was awesome. I love that kid. ha ha.

My Mom's Birthday Surprise

2011-07-19T18:44:00.000-04:00

This weekend was fun.

Eliza and I surprised my mom for her birthday by coming home for the weekend. My mom was at work and Eliza and I walked in unexpectedly. She was so surprised. It was awesome.

We had a wonderful weekend eating, shopping, playing. Eliza gave lots of kisses and loved chasing the dogs around the house. She was a little spoiled.

I hope my mom had a great birthday. She is so kind and generous and takes care of us. She sacrifices so much for her family and for taking care of my Memaw who has alzheimer's. She is a wonderful example to me of being selfless and patient.

A few cell phone pictures of the weekend:

Eliza stealing food off of my mom's plate. (She needs to learn she is supposed to 'give' on birthdays not 'take')

While shopping Eliza found her twin and was really excited. This is her excited face. All that shopping wore her out.

We had a great trip. We missed Kase though. When we got back home Eliza and her daddy played and played until they were both ready for night night.

Happy Birthday Momma. We love you!

The Night Eliza Tried to Turn herself into a Smurf

2011-07-13T08:15:00.000-04:00

WARNING: THIS POST CONTAINS GROSSNESS. READER BEWARE.

So this morning I went in Eliza's room and found her sleeping in a huge puddle of blueberry vomit. The poor girl loves blueberries and ate quite a few of them yesterday. Her bed was covered in blue. It was nasty. I felt soooo bad she slept in it. She didn't cry at all or make any weird noises.

I grabbed her up (after calling to Kase for help) and got her in the bath for a scrubbing.

The sad part is that last night before I went to bed I felt like I should go check on her. I just missed her and I wanted to see her. I even walked to her room and opened the door, but it was really dark and I didn't want to wake her up. I should've stuck with my feeling and checked on her.

She is staying home with her daddy today. She seems OK so maybe she just had too much to eat before bedtime. I was worried she might have whatever I had this past weekend. Poor little girl.

Best thing about Tuesday (I am still working on today):

- I am no longer pumping any more!!!! It is soooo nice. Eliza has been taking regular milk for a few weeks now and so I slowly started cutting out my regularly scheduled pumping sessions at work. This week has been the first week where I am not pumping at all. Let me tell you, it is great. I don't have to watch the clock all day (except for counting down to lunch and going home time.) I don't have to work around meetings interupting my schedule, cleaning pump parts, or lugging an extra bag back and forth from home. It is wonderful. I am still nursing Eliza in the morning and at night before bed, but we both enjoy that bonding time a lot so it is like the best of both worlds.

Now I just need to get her to eat more veggies and less blueberries.

Monday Monday

2011-07-11T23:59:00.000-04:00

So I've decided to post every other day for a while.

We will see how long that lasts.

You might get bored reading my posts of the usual everyday stuff.

But life is made up of every days of just the usual, and I would like to remember my everydays of the usual.

So if you think it's boring, then sorry!

This past weekend was fun. We had dinner/movie with some good friends who we don't see often enough. They are having a baby scoe (scarlett or zoe) in the next few weeks and we are excited for them.

Then Saturday Eliza and I had a play date at the splash park with our friends. Eliza was not so sure about the water, but loved the blueberries we brought to snack on.

Then Saturday night I got really sick. It was bad. I don't even want to talk about it. It stuck around until Monday when I finally started to feel better. I am so so so grateful for good health.

When I get home everyday, Kase asks me what the best thing about my day is. It's his sneaky way of trying to get me to be more positive I think. But it is a good thing do to. Kase and Eliza are always the best things about my day, but I am suppose to list something else.

So..... the best things about today:
- being able to hold down a meal.
- finding out what my husband has planned for us on our 5th anniversary in a month.
- Eliza saying "This..This...This..." and pointing to her toes so that I would do "This little piggy" for her.

It is the sweet and simple things.

The Post has been brought to you by the letter 'B' and the number '4'

2011-07-01T17:30:00.003-04:00

This week has been a good week. Why do you ask?

Well, Eliza is officially off the bottle!!!! YAY!

For those of you who have seen/used Dr. Brown's bottles, you will observe they have lots of tiny pieces that are annoying to wash. So we are excited that we no longer have to wash them. YAY!!!

She has started taking sippy cups with her milk. She was the last of the 4 babies in her daycare class to switch, but that is OK because I think they are all trying to grow up too fast anyways.

Eliza has started saying a lot of words: Burd (bird), Baaa (Ball), Beh-lee (Belly), Bye bye, Baby, and Baah (Bath). (Do you see a theme here? She likes the letter 'B'.) She also says Hi, Da Da, Ma ma (but only occasionally), tank eew (Thank you), and Oh-ma (home).

So basically I am absolutely in love with her and she is so much fun I could just eat her up.

This week I also went to book club. Did I tell you I joined book club? I have really enjoyed it. I love to read, but school kind of ruined it for me. Book Club has gotten me back into it. I even have a library card! Plus it is fun to visit with friends once a month. So far I have read: Jane Eyre, The Secret Life of Bees, and Unbroken. I REALLY liked Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand. It is a true story about a man who fought WWII. I dont' want to ruin it for you so all I will say is if you like to learn while you read, and like historical stuff (Erin C.) you will probably like this book. I learned stuff about WWII that I had no idea about. It was good. It is particularly nice to read with the July 4th coming up because it is nice to remember all of the sacrifices the members of our military have made for us.

Speaking of July 4th, I am excited for this weekend! I plan on cooking some yummy peach/blueberry turkey burgers (I will let you know if they are good/bad), throwing a baby shower, attending a first birthday party, and celebrating the fourth of July with friends. I specifically remember this time last year, sitting on my couch with a screaming baby and wishing I could watch the fire works. So I am excited to be able to celebrate this year.

Happy Independence Day to everyone!

Eliza's One Year Photo Shoot

2011-06-29T17:15:00.000-04:00

A few weeks ago, our sweet neighbor (I will call her B) who has her own photography business, Fisher Fotography, did an awesome photoshoot for us.

It was really fun, even though Eliza was grumpy due to an ear infection I didn't know she had. (Notice her pulling on her ear in a lot of the shots.)

Thank you B for capturing some great moments!

The Birthday Girl

Crazy Day

2011-06-22T20:31:00.003-04:00

So as you probably know it stormed here pretty bad last night. I am grateful that we have power today and that a tree didn't fall on us... or worse.

However, these storms made my day very interesting.

Eliza has been sick lately. A runny nose, cough, sneezing... that sort of thing. So she has stayed home and Kase and I have alternated being off work with her. But today she was sooo pitiful and icky so I decided to take her to the doctor.

We got there early this morning after maneuvering through downed trees, only to find that the doctor was running late due to her power being out. I can't be mad because she is usually right on time, plus she can't help that she has no power. So I had to entertain a 1 year old in a tiny patient room. (Side note: I SWEAR to you that she picked out the blue floor tile after I asked her to find the blue one. It may be in my head but I am going to pretend it's not.)

After she was diagnosed with an ear infection, we were on our way back through downed trees to drop off her perscription. (Note to self: change to a pharmacy with a drive through.) We were told it would be a few minutes, so I loaded my screaming baby back into the carseat and we headed over to Hardees because someone I know has a really bad addiction to their bacon-egg-cheese biscuits. (They are REALLY good.)

We rolled up to the drive threw and were told they were closed because of no power. So we drove over to McDonalds and waited in a really long line of disappointed hardees customers till we got to the ordering place and were told that they were only taking cash because their card machines were down. So my emergency 20 was broken out, because when I need a biscuit it is an emergency, and I partook of a not-so-great-mcdonalds biscuit.

After running another errand, I headed back to the pharmacy, unloaded the baby, walked inside, headed towards the pharmacy.... and the power went out. I just stood there with a crying baby in a pitch black store. The pharmacist started pulling this big metal gate shut. All I could think was ARE YOU KIDDING ME.

So I took a shot and asked the pharmacist if he could take cash for our prescription. He said he could and let us inside his gate thing-a-ma-jig. I thought that was really nice of him because I am pretty sure he wasn't suppose to do that for me. So we were about to leave and the store's electricity came back on and so we were able to pay like normal people.

Now, I am home in my air conditioned house with a baby who is feeling better already. You can't beat that. Unless maybe if I had a hardees biscuit right about now.

PS Hope everyone's electricity comes on soon.

PSS Today was kindof scary. If there was a disaster, how would you pay for anything without cash? The pharmacist said they can't even take checks anymore without electricity because they now have to verify them electronically. Also, I really need to work on my food storage.

Eliza's Very First Birthday

2011-06-08T17:30:00.000-04:00

Eliza turned the big ONE on Monday June 6th. I can't believe she is one already! It seems like just yesterday she was a tiny little thing screaming her head off constantly.

I am so grateful to be her mother and so in love with this little person who changes and grows everyday.

At 1 She:

- Has 10 teeth with 2 more bottom on the way in.

- Loves the book "Where's Spot" and likes to lift the flaps to find Spot. She gets the book off the shelf and brings it to us to read.

- Is walking everywhere.

- Waves and says "Bye bye"

- Goes to bed around 7 and sleeps till around 7.

- has started letting me rock with her at night before I put her in her crib, then she pushes the music button on her glowworm over and over until she falls asleep.

- Just yesterday I was reading a book (my own book). She pointed to it and I told her it was a book. She looked over at her bookshelf. Just to see what she would do I told her to go get a book and bring it to me. She actually did it! She brought a book back and climbed in my lap and we read. It was an ABC book with a picture of something for each letter. The letter 'K' was a Kiss. When I read that she turned and gave me a kiss. My heart melted. I am so proud of her.

- She is sweet and smart and still clingy to her mommy.

- She loves to eat.

- She makes us so happy.

On Sunday we had a small party for her. We had family over to celebrate. It was an owl theme "Look Whoo's One" Party. We had so much fun.

Waiting for the guests to arrive:

We had BBQ and Eliza was suppose to open presents. Instead she carried around her first present while I opened the rest:

The Cake (It is an owl if you can't tell. I worked hard on it!):

Waiting for her piece of cake:

After she ate her cake, she had to have a bath, then she continued playing with the balloons:

I think she had a lot of fun at her party and we were so grateful to everyone who came. I have more pictures but blogger won't let me upload them.

Update

2011-05-23T20:35:00.004-04:00

I'm a bit behind on blogging. If we only had faster internet or more hours in the day. That would be awesome.

But just a few updates...

- my job is calming down a bit so I won't need to work on Saturdays for a while so that is great!

-Eliza is so much fun (which she is not grumpy). The other day we were playing in her room and she took off crawling out of her room and racing down the hall towards the stairs. I crawled after her and she just started giggling madly. It made my day.

- I have read 2 books in the last two months! Amazing for me! I love to read but I have become lazy and I never know what to read. So I joined the book club at church. I read "Jane Eyre" which I liked and "The Secret Life of Bees" which wasn't bad. The next book we're reading is "Unbroken" but I can't seem to get it at the library so I might miss that one. I checked "The Help" out from the library but I am not sure I am in the mood for it. Either way I am proud of myself for reading a book AND for getting a library card. ha.

- Eliza took her first steps on Sunday!!! We were at church and her cute friend "P" was playing with a giant ball and she was amazed by it. The next thing I know she had taken about 4 steps before falling down. It was awesome! I as so excited.

Things are looking up around here. I'm going to take off a few days from work soon and I am excited to relax and spend time with my family and friends.

My Mother's Day Gift

2011-05-13T20:44:00.004-04:00

For Mother's Day, Kase made me a sweet video. It made me teary. He is a sweet husband and father.

I love my sweet family.

11 Months Old

2011-05-10T17:55:00.001-04:00

I can't believe my baby is almost a year old!!!

At 11 Months she:

- cruises around furniture and crawls quickly.

- HATES having her diaper changed or clothes changed.

- has had a few tantrums lately. I am hoping it was because she was sick and tired. I hope.

- still loves bath time.

- loves trying new finger foods.

- points at things and jabbers like she is saying something really important.

- is still very attached and clingy to me.

- has recently enjoyed napping in her crib instead of w/ me. Which is bittersweet.

- is a really good sleeper. Which is awesome!

- is curious, smart, sweet, funny, fiesty, and the most amazing thing to us.

Mother's Day

2011-05-07T08:50:00.001-04:00

This weekend I am thinking a lot about being a mother as it is my first mother's day. I think it is the most amazing thing in the world and I love every thing about it. Even the late nights/early mornings/crying fits. I love my sweet girl.

I am also thinking about all the love my mother has given me. About how when you're upset just hearing your mother's voice can be so comforting. About all the late nights/early mornings/crying fits she put up with from me.

I am so grateful for my sweet mother, for Kase's sweet mother, and for the opportunity I have to be the mother to sweet Eliza.

Happy mother's day to all the mothers out there, to all the wonderful women who fill a motherly role for someone else, and to all those who will be mothers some day. As women we are all mothers. Hope you have a great weekend!

Last Week In (Cellphone) Pictures

2011-04-12T18:35:00.000-04:00

We broke out the shorts for the 80 degree weather....

Eliza cooled off in the bath with her favorite bath toy, Stan the Starfish.

My sister got her drivers license.... finally. :)

Eliza and I went to visit my parents:

Eliza discovered she has the same hair as my dad:

Eliza got a new toy. Thanks to an awesome yard sale. It was a good week.

10 Months

2011-04-06T23:55:00.001-04:00

Eliza turned 10 months on Wednesday.

Her daddy dressed her up to watch a game.

Daddy Daughter Day

They had a good day.

goofy faces

"How do I turn the game on?"

At 10 months Eliza: - crawls all over the place.

- pulls up on everything.

- makes diaper changes impossible by rolling around everywhere.

- stands for a few minutes all by herself. She gets this really proud smile on her face as she wobbles like she is hoola hooping. so cute.

- waves a lot.

- loves bathtime.

- just started standing up in her crib (and it freaks me out.)

- makes all kinds of fun noises.

- loves to explore the house.

- loves seeing her school friends. She smiles and waves at them.

- still has 8 teeth.

- turn into evil baby if you stay up past 8 at the LATEST.

- make us laugh and smile more than we ever imagined. We love being her mommy and daddy. Eliza's personality is really starting to show. She is mostly happy and very sassy. We love her.

After this picture I accidentally let her fall off the couch and land on her head. Photo shoot over. I am an awesome mom.

Random Update

2011-03-30T17:29:00.000-04:00

Here is what we've been up to lately:

- Yesterday we cleaned out half of the garage.... Ok Kase really did the work and Eliza and I bossed him around. I love spring cleaning.

- I went on a walk with 2 of our neighbors whose daughters go to daycare with Eliza. Eliza kept waving back and forth to her friends on both sides of her. So cute. It was fun. I felt all healthy and stuff. But it took up all of our afternoon "mommy and Eliza" time so I don't think we will do it everyday.

- Eliza's 23 hour EEG test results came back completely normal. We were happy. PLUS she stopped "posing" and we were excited..... until last week when we had an appointment with the neurologist. That very morning she started posing again. The Doc said she thinks she is normal and just wants to see us back in a year. Eliza is trying to drive me crazy.

- Eliza wants to walk really really bad.

- I have created a "Laura night" where one night a week I put Eliza to bed between 7 and 8. Then I go out and do whatever I want. It has been a nice little break for me and I don't feel like I am missing out cause she is asleep anyways. Although, I am tired so I am usually back home by 9:30. ha.

- Work is super busy right now. It is driving me bananas.

- We are trying really hard to be better at reading scriptures every day. I feel so much better when we do it.

- Our 5 year anniversary is this summer. We want to go on a cheap trip together. If you have read down this far in my post, perhaps you would be willing to comment and give me trip suggestions too?

I shall now reward your diligent reading with a picture. It is a little late but it is hilarious:

Photo Session Give Away

2011-03-26T15:22:00.003-04:00

My friend and next door neighbor is a great photographer AND she is doing a give away on her blog.

If you win you get an awesome photo session with her.

Go here to enter and to check out her photos.

I hope you don't win though cause I really want to win!

Good luck.... TO ME!!! :) MUAH HA HA. (That's my evil laugh.)

I would like a little cheese with my whine please...

2011-03-23T22:35:00.000-04:00

This post may be a little too personal and a little too long. I usually don't write things that are too personal because... well... this is the internet. And I try not to write things that are too long because.... well... noone likes to read super long posts.

So skip it if you want. But I wanted to write this for my records.

I have been in a weird mood lately. I feel like I am at a really weird point in my life. When I was a kid I always dreamed that I would be 1 of 2 things when I grew up: a teacher or a stay-at-home-mom. I wanted to be a teacher because I love to organize and calendar things and I thought that making the bulletin boards would be super fun. Oh yeah and teaching kids would be cool too. I wanted to be a stay at home mom because I wanted to teach my children and organize my home and calendar things and.... I think I could totally make a bulletin board for my home.

Turns out I am neither of those things. Life does that you know. You make plans and they don't exactly turn out the way you thought.

I am OK with not being a teacher. I really love the job that I do have. I love the people that I work with. Plus I don't like public speaking and so teaching may have been a little much for me. I would write more awesome things about my job but for security purposes I cannot. But my job rocks.

I do wish I could stay at home with my sweet little baby. I know that it's not easy to be a stay at home mom. I know they work hard and oftentimes don't get much credit for all that they do. I think it would be hard to not be around friends/co-workers everyday. But I wish I could do it.

If I stayed home, I could spend everyday with my baby. It has been hard lately because Eliza has started sleeping in later, and going to bed earlier. So that means less time with her. I use to think that I would get up and go to work really early so I could get off early and have more evening time with her. But that is unrealistic at this point. If I did that I would miss seeing her in the mornings, miss dropping her off at daycare, and miss nursing in the morning-time. Right now I only see her for a little bit in the mornings and a few hours in the evenings plus weekends. This makes it hard for me to do anything else but be with her when I am not at work. I don't want to go do anything babyless because that just takes away from more time with her. But I know I need to do things babyless because I need to nurture other aspects of my life.

If I stayed home, I think I would clean my house more. Currently I feel that spending time as a family is more important than dusting (or other housecleaning acitivities). Kase has picked up a lot of my slack and I am grateful. The problem is I actually enjoy cleaning and it makes me feel good when I clean. So I begin to miss it when I am not cleaning.

If I stayed home, I would feel less guilty. It is hard to leave the baby. I know that she loves playing with her daycare friends and I know that she loves me and seems to be doing really good. But for selfish reasons I miss every minute I am not with her.

If I stayed home, I might have more friends. I would have more time for the friends that I do have, and I could make friends with other stay-at-home moms and we could hang out during the day. I have 1 friend at work who is a working mother to small children but we don't really ever talk about it. I don't think it really bothers her. I don't really know anyone else who works full time. Ok I do know 1 person but she is so busy we never have time to chat (see above). The people I know either work but don't have kids or they stay at home.

I know I am doing what I have to do. We cannot afford for me to stay at home right now. I know that I am blessed to have a wonderful job that I really love, an amazing husband who puts up with my craziness, and a sweet daughter who I would not trade for anything. I would rather be a working mother than not a mother at all.

But sometimes it gets lonely and then I need to vent. So there you have it.

And because the only thing worse than a really long post (too late to rememdy that) is a post with no pictures. Here is my Junebug hydrating after a walk with her dad:

It's My Birthday Shout Hurray!

2011-03-16T17:35:00.000-04:00

So today is my birthday. It is my last year in my 20's. Sigh....

But I won't say I'm old because well... I always look back to when I said that and I think "I wasn't old then, but I am now." Like when I turned 21 I thought I was old, but I was just a baby. It's all relative you know. So I've decided I won't be old until I'm 70. And I may have to re-evaluate "old" at that time as well.

This past weekend my parents and sister came up to celebrate. It was fun. We shopped and ate and visited. I was glad my sister came because she just got a car and I'm sure she was really dying to tak her car out and not come visit me.

Today, I am working but my boss/friend took me to get our nails done. I have never had a manicure at a salon. I have had fake nails but not my real nails painted. It was really nice. And my nails are pretty and pink. But I have already smudged my thumb a lot. oops. AND my boss/friend made me chocolate cherry cake.... YUMMMM. She rocks.

Plus my co-workers are were all really nice to me today and gave me candy and cards. I love where I work.

I feel spoiled.

Kase baked me cupcakes and we're going to dinner. Well, we may go to dinner. I think I really just want to stay home and enjoy my sweet husband, my sweet baby, and my sweet cupcakes.

Life is sweet.

P.S. Eliza's present to her mommy is that she learned to crawl this past weekend! And wave! And she has recently started clapping. I could eat her. But I won't cause I am busy eating cupcakes.

9 Months Old

2011-03-07T06:34:00.002-05:00

On Sunday, Eliza turned 9 months old. I can harldy believe that she has been with us for 3/4s of a year! At 9 months she: Smiles a lot... Loves to play.... Wonders about a lot of things.... Studies things closely.... Drools a lot..... Discovered that she has a tongue....She likes to squeal really loundly to get our attention or the dog's attention.... Says 'mama' to my delight but doesn't know what it means..... has 8 teeth..... wiggles around on the floor until she gets to where she wants to go (it is not graceful)..... doesn't hold still for pictures.... starting to sleep even longer at night, sometimes 11 or 12 hours.... can turn the light switch off and then squeals with delight (we are working on turning it ON next).... is much easier to take into public and enjoy a meal with.... is developing quite the little personality complete with sassiness..... is always on the go..... We love you Eliza and can't wait to see what you do next! At doctor's visit she weighed 17 lbs 15.5 oz.

Saturday is a Special Day

2011-03-01T18:45:00.000-05:00

Last weekend was nice. Lately I have been lazy on the home front. Normally it bothers me to not clean but recently I have felt that it is more important to spend time with Kase and Eliza than vacuum.

So on Saturday Kase had a project and instead of cleaning the house Eliza and I decided to head out together.

We had a lunch date with a friend and then we shopped. We hit up 4 stores and the best part was Eliza didn't cry once! Not even a little. It was blissful. She was in such a good mood. And she had the cutest outfit on. Every where we went people commented on her cuteness. I kindof felt like a celebrity's mom. It was nice.

Then we met Kase for dinner at subway... for our last Februany (if you've seen their annoying commercials I don't know how you could miss them) $5 footlong of the month. Which also brings up a funny story. Did you know Kase didn't know you spell February with 2 Rs? haha. Eliza was even good for us while we ate. She did try to steal my sandwhich a few times but you can't blame her. It was good.

All of this time out in public places with Eliza made me think of the days when I couldn't take her any where because she screamed all the time and how when did go out I would pray that she would stay asleep so we could get through one meal or one quick store trip.

She did get better. We moved from that phase to being able to make it through one store or one meal. And now I am totally loving this new phase where we can go in public for a WHOLE DAY and it was ENJOYABLE! And she was really CUTE! I am GRATEFUL!

So some chores don't go away and we ended the awesome day by doing a load of laundry. But Eliza did help. And she was really cute.

I love my baby girl.

A Belated Valentine Post

2011-02-23T06:30:00.000-05:00

So last week was V-day.

It seems many people are either super anti-Valentine's day or super pro-Valentine's day. I like it but I am not a crazy person about it. I mean... I am OK with celebrating V-day on the Saturday before or after or whatever. But that is just me.

On V-day I was at work. I noticed roses were delivered to one of my co-workers. Then another co-worker got balloons. Hmmmm.....

I have never had flowers delivered to my work. I think it's kind of odd. Sort of like showing off or something. I mean... I am OK with getting flowers at work or after work or whatever. But that is just me.

Then I got a phone call from the receptionist.

There was something for me at the front desk.

I found a beautiful orchid and a box from my "secret admirer". Inside the box was a puzzle. The puzzle was a picture of me and my cute little Eliza.

I took my flowers to my office.

After work Kase bought me Taco Bell and chocolate covered strawberries.

I think getting flowers at work is nice. I don't mind showing off at work... or on my blog... or whatever. But that is just me.

I love my Valentine.

The Mummy Returns

2011-02-22T06:55:00.002-05:00

Last week was crazy and weird.

On Thursday, Eliza had to go for a 23 hour EEG. It's the same test that she had before, only overnight. I tried to prepare for the test by searching online to see what it would be like, but I could find nothing. So we went to Children's Hospital not knowing what to expect.

Just like last time they put electrodes on her head, but this time they used extra skin glue to secure them for the night. It smelled really bad. Eliza was good for this part just relaxing on the table looking at her daddy who was keeping her entertained. She even laughed once. Then they wrapped her head with medical gauze. She HATED that part and screamed and screamed. She probably wondered what we were doing to her. Then they used medical tape and covered her head with it to keep the gauze on good. She had the chords coming out from behind her head. She looked like a mummy again.

Then we headed up to our hospital room. The staff were very nice. They had a crib set up in her room. She needed to stay around her bed so that the video camera could watch her while the computer recorded her brain waves. I requested a regular bed because I knew she wouldn't sleep well in the strange crib by herself. Especially with the giant mummy head and chord coming out from the back of her head (hello strangulation hazard!!). So reluctantly (and with a signed "It's not our fault if you suffocate your child by accident" form) the nurses let us get a regular bed for us to sleep in. We put the sides up on the bed and wah-la... a giant crib for mummy and mummy's mommy to snuggle in.

Eliza almost immediately fell asleep worn out from the mummifying process and after we napped we awoke to dinner service. Only.... the hospital thinks that an 8month old can eat hamburger and macaroni and cheese. That was kind of odd. They kept sending her food she couldn't eat. But it was OK cause Kase and I ate most of it.

Eliza had to stay on the bed so that her mummy chord didn't get tangled up and so that she could stay within the camera's vision. So we played with toys on the bed. All. Evening. Long. She kept falling over because her mummy head was too big. It was a blessing that she can't crawl yet. She also enjoyed several games of "let's throw this toy off the bed and watch daddy pick it up." That was fun.

The neurologist, Dr. K, came by. She is a very nice lady with a thick polish accent. She said that if Eliza didn't have one of her episodes she might have to keep us longer than one night. After she left, Kase and I tried to get Eliza to "pose." She did a few times but they were half-hearted. Her mummy head kept throwing her off and the fact that she was out of her element was a bit distracting to her too. Hopefully they got a few good examples though.

Finally, it was bed time for all mummies and mommies. We snuggled up and settled in and fell asleep.... until nurse #1 of a bagillion came in to take her blood pressure and tempurature. Yes, the nurse visits started around 8 and didn't stop until midnight. One nurse needed to check her eyes, one her temperature, one needed to know what she ate and how many diapers she had, and one wanted to see if I needed any breast pump parts. One nurse just wanted to see if we needed anything. YES We need sleep!!!! I know it is their job- and they were very nice- but really? It was ridiculous how many people came in and out and were loud when my 8 month old was trying to sleep while her head was stuck to the bed from all of the medical tape. Finally, at half past midnight, we got a break... until 6 am.

The next morning Eliza was brought eggs, toast, and grits... more food she can't eat yet. Only this time, they brought me some too. Since I was a nursing mother they started feeding me as well. That was nice of them. We hung out and waited for the neurologist to come visit. We played with lots of toys and were bored to death. Finally, Dr. K came in and said we could go home. We won't know the results for a week or 2 and only then if she sees that something is wrong. Otherwise, we meet with Dr. K at the end of March.

After Dr. K left the EEG techs came in to remove Eliza's mummy helmet. They cut off her mummy helmet and then had to put acetone on the skin glue to get the electrodes off her head. Eliza screamed and screamed. It was painless (I think) but scary to her. Finally, we had our little Eliza back, mummy-free. We celebrated by eating the hospital lunch they brought for our mummy. Grilled chicken, potatoes, and corn. Yum.

We were all glad to get out of there.

Former Mummy head... now glue head:

I am so grateful for Eliza's health. I felt so bad seeing families at the hospital who have been there for weeks and months and who are seeing their children suffer illnesses and diseases. There was a little boy in the room next to ours. He had no hair and a surgical mask around his mouth. It was his birthday. My heart goes out to these families. I cannot imagine what that must feel like to see your child suffering in that way. It makes me grateful for what we have and it makes me admire the strength of these people.

I am glad that we have that over with.

Other happenings:

- My jeep's transmission is dying. 218,000 some odd miles. Sad day. I will continue driving it until it croaks.

- Eliza is getting her 8th tooth.

- We visited my parents this weekend. It was fun.

- Eliza did not sleep through the night one time (see above "getting 8th tooth" also mummy flash backs).

- We are glad to be back home now.

- Eliza still has glue in her hair.

- I do miss having the hospital bring me food.

8 Months

2011-02-09T18:35:00.002-05:00

Yet another month has flown by and our sweet girl turned 8 Months on Sunday.

At 8 months she:

- talks a lot. Says "da da da" and "ba ba ba". Still doesn't really know what they mean yet though.

- has 7 teeth (4 top and 3 bottom)

- growls sometimes.

- is beginning to observe things around her more.

- has discovered that if she throws things off the couch, daddy will retrieve them.

- loves to jump in her jumperoo.

- doesn't crawl but while sitting she tries to pull herself over only to end up sitting ackwardly on her feet so it looks like she might break them off at any moment.

- still "poses" :(

- laughs more.

- loves to eat.

- has become really attached to her mom. Which I love sometimes but it also gets to be a little annoying when I am trying to get a break or eat dinner or do anything without her. It also embarrasses me when she won't let people hold her.

- is about to outgrow her 6/9 month clothes.

- has a really huge smile that is contagious.

- is the cutest little thing that makes us so happy everyday... even when she does poop all over me.

We love you Junebug.

We had a little party for her on Sunday with a little football game involved... at least that is what she thinks. She wore her favorite football team gear to impress her grandpa. Maybe next year Dolphins?

Cute Picture

2011-01-25T17:35:00.000-05:00

My sister in law took this picture and I stole it off of her facebook because it is cute.

This is Eliza and her cousin Sophie.

I love how Eliza is looking at her like she thinks she is the coolest thing ever.

I think Sophie may have a little shadow following her around one day.

What's Up Doc?

2011-01-13T21:49:00.000-05:00

I have never been to the doctor so much in my entire life (that I remember) until Eliza came along. I think the week she was born we went to the doctor every other day. First, it was a check-up, then shots, then a weird belly button, then a check on her kidney, her brain, another check-up and so on. It's a lot of visits for a healthy little girl.

If you remember Eliza was born with a dilated kidney that they found in utero. Ever since she was born she has had to take antibiotics to prevent any urinary tract infections. Last Friday, we went to the urologist and they did an ultrasound on her kidney to see how it looks. We had prayed that she would be better. I didn't want her to have to have surgery or to take medicine anymore.

So we went to the doctor and they did the ultrasound while she tried to eat the paper on the table. Turns out my prayers were answered. On a scale of 0 (being perfectly fine) to 4 (being the worst) she is now at a 1! She use to be a 4! Even the doctor was a little surprised at the improvment.

We were so excited.

So she is getting better. She doesn't have to take the medicine anymore. She just has to go back in a year so they can check on her again. By then she will probably be at a 0. Looks like as she is growing the problem is fixing itself. Yay.

I really love these kind of doctor's appointments.

I REALLY love answered prayers.

I REALLY love my baby.

7 months

2011-01-06T20:12:00.000-05:00

Eliza turned 7 months on 1/6/2011. It is so hard for me to believe how big she is getting. It seems like just yesterday she was a teeny tiny thing screaming her head off constantly. We love her so.

At 7 months she:

- has 3 bottom teeth, 1 top tooth and 2 more top teeth on the way.

- says "da da da" and sounds like she is telling you something important when babbling.

- smiles a lot but still only laughs rarely.

- can sit and play with her toys or bounce in her jumperoo for a while.

- LOVES the dog.

- Is a little more patient when she wants something instead of screaming.

- Will do tummy time for a while.

- leans really far over to get to something but won't try to crawl yet.

- really likes sweet potatoes.

We love her with all of our hearts and are so glad that she is here with us.

Post Christmas Photo Shoot

2011-01-06T18:15:00.000-05:00

As a girl I feel that I am allowed to be a little bit crazy. (Atleast I am self-aware right?) As I mentioned I didn't get a good picture of Eliza on Christmas. So a week later I dressed her in her Christmas outfit and she had a photo shoot with one of her favorite Christmas toys.

She wanted to show off her new purse. It comes with everything a girl needs: liptstick, money, bracelet, keys, mirror, and it even sings her songs.

They keys are especially handy for cutting teeth on. And everytime she plays with her purse, her mom gives her a $1 allowance! This was exciting at first but she is starting to get a little greedy and recently asked for a raise.

But then she realized she doesn't need a raise because she looks like a million bucks. And I think she is priceless.

Christmas Day

2011-01-05T18:29:00.001-05:00

Christmas morning we had our christmas at home just the 3 of us. It was so fun to spend time with each other and see Eliza explore. Although the dog enjoyed her new toys more than Eliza enjoyed her new toys. She liked the bows and paper. But it was really fun.

Showing Eliza an ornament in our matching P.J.s ...

The stocking my sister helped me make for Eliza. I also made Kase's so don't make too much fun of it....

Eliza and her bow....

Kase and his cufflinks that look like movie reels....

Eliza's new blanket that I like too much and I am afraid to use it cause I don't want to get it dirty. ha ha.

After that we headed over to Kase's parents house to celebrate some more....

We had homemade pizzas of all different kinds....

Eliza found some more bows that she liked......We loved watching everyone open their gifts especially the neices and nephew. We loved visiting and playing games. I don't have any pictures because we brought a camera that Kase borrowed and I apparently don't know how to use it because the pictures were all too dark. Which is why I dressed Eliza up in her Christmas outfit for a photo shoot a week later because all the pictures I took of her on actual Christmas were not good. Sorry little baby. (those pictures are coming soon.) But we did have a lot of fun on Christmas.

Santa Clause came to Town and Sang us a Song

2011-01-04T18:49:00.001-05:00

We celebrated Christmas with my side of the family the weekend before Christmas. We had fun....

Kase loved on Eliza....

My brother and his wife came over to open presents with us ...My sister taking pictures.... Eliza got the cutest Grover from her uncle John and aunt Leah.....

Santa played a song and my sister sang but I don't have a picture of her singing....
Oh Oops did I forgot to mention my dad is Santa?..... Eliza also got to see Ms. Clause...

We had a wonderful time.

Happy New Year

2011-01-01T21:42:00.004-05:00

It is the new year. 1-1-11 and I am glad to have a fresh start. 2010 was so good to me and brought us our sweet Eliza.

We found out on Thursday the results from her EEG were completely normal. She is just a little beautiful weirdo. We are still going to meet with a neurologist just to see if they have any insight about why she does her pose, but it is not seisures and that is wonderful. We are so relieved and so blessed.

She is also beating the crap out of RSV. She is a tough one.

We love our little weirdo.

Oh did I mention Eliza is cutting 3 of her top teeth. All at the same time. Awesome.

Happy New Year to everyone. Hope this year is even better than the last.

This post was brought to you by the letters EEG and RSV

2010-12-29T06:30:00.004-05:00

There are sooo many pictures from Christmas I may never get them uploaded. But I will try to get a few on here soon. We had a lovely time. More details to come.

But in the meantime here are some Good/Bad things that have been going on:

- Good thing: My sister had a birthday where she turned 19.
Bad thing: That means I am getting old.
Good thing: We celebrated at a japanese grill. My first time at one and it was yummy!

- Good thing: We celebrated Christmas a week before with my side of the family. We had a wonderful time. I am so blessed to have wonderful parents, and the best sister, brother, and sister-in-law. It was nice to spend time with them.
Bad thing: Weedends are too short.

- Good thing: Christmas eve was a holiday off from work. We watched Christmas movies, visited with a dear friend, and had hot chocolate. Kase even baked me my favorite cookies to satisfy my sweet tooth. He is so sweet. We also got to put out presents for the baby under the tree. That was fun.
(Not so) Bad thing: the baby likes wrapping paper/bows more than presents. Oh well. Still cute.

- Good thing: Christmas day was spent with Kase's side of the family and we had so much fun. Lots of homemade pizzas and visiting with family. Kase's mom got an XBox Kinect (I think that is what it is called) and just FYI I am so out of shape, I only played like 3 little games and what should be my ab muscles were sore the next day! So worth it. (SuperDeb, I need to come play some more!)
Bad thing: Christmas is over.

- Bad thing: The day after Christmas Kase and I were both suppose to teach at church.
Good thing: It was suppose to snow. I felt bad praying that there wouldn't be church, so instead I prayed that there would be more snow.... and there was... and church was canceled.... and I got to stay home all day and snuggle my baby instead of teaching. Nice.

- Good thing: My Mom, Dad, and Sister came up to visit. It's so nice to have them here. I took Monday and Tuesday off to do some shopping and to take Eliza to her doctor appointment. Nice to be off work.
Bad thing: Taking Eliza to the doctor.

Short Story:
-Tuesday morning Eliza had her EEG test at Children's hospital. On Monday night, she started running a fever and coughing. She was pittiful and kept wanting me and making these sad little noises. She needed to be drousy for the EEG, which she was because we kept her up late (as instructed) plus she woke up EVERY hour during the night PLUS we woke her up early (as instructed). She was also hungry becaus we weren't allowed to feed her for 4 hours before the test. She did so good though and wasn't a grumpy monster like I thought she would be.

For the test they had me lay on a bed next her her. They wrapped her in a sheet where she couldn't move. She didn't like that at all. Then they wrote with a red pencil all over her head marking where each of the 22 electrodes should be placed. She didn't like that either. Then they put the electrodes on her and wrapped her head like a mummy. She looked like this:

Then she fell asleep just like she was suppose. What a good little baby. They tracked her brain waves for around 20 minutes or so. Then we had to wake her up and get her to do her "pose." Then it was all over. Poor little thing. Then she looked like this:

We won't know the results of the EEG for a week. After that she ate and we went home and took a good nap.

THEN I decided to torture her some more and take her to the doctor for her cough/fever/runny nose. And guess what... She has RSV. (Brianna stay away!!) I don't really understand what that is but I think it can keep babies from breathing good and then they have to go to the hospital. Good news is Eliza's oxygen levels were good and I just have to keep an eye on her and make sure whe doesn't get too weezy or a fever that is too high. Oh and she has a double ear infection. Yikes. She has never really been sick before so I guess she decided to go all out.

Bad thing: RSV. Sick Baby. Icky Tests. That was a long day.

Good thing: Eliza slept sooo good last night. My parents are at my house today taking care of her while we're at work.

Bad thing: I have to work.

Good thing: I am off on Friday!

Good thing: I get to spend New Year's Eve with my hubby and my baby.

Christmas pictures coming soon!

P.S.
Last wednesday Eliza started saying "Da Da" she has no idea what it means but it is super cute. She also has her 3rd tooth!
She is growing way too fast!
But I am glad she is growing.
And for my memory she weight 16 lbs even at the doctor yesterday.

P.S.S.
Ok I am done now. Sorry for the long post.

P.S.S.S.
THE END

10 days and Random Thoughts

2010-12-15T19:35:00.001-05:00

Did you know that Christmas is 10 days away!!! How crazy is that?!

I don't feel very Christmasy this year for some reason. I have listened to the same christmas cd over and over just like every year, I have put up our christmas tree, I wrapped most of the presents, and attended a christmas movie party at a friend's house (quite fun), but it doesn't really feel like Christmas. I can't figure it out.

But this weekend we will be celebrating my little sister's birthday, have Christmas with my side of the family, AND have a christmas party with Kase's side of the family so hopefully that will do the trick and make it feel Christmas-y around here.

Now I just need to get rid of this cold.

I love traditions and I want to make some new ones with our little family. But I don't really know where to start. Eliza is too young to know what is going on but I really want to think of some good ones for when she is old enough. Any suggestions?

I plan on reading the christmas story on christmas eve and watching christmas movies while eating delicious goodies all day long. I think that would be a good tradition to keep.

"It's a Wonderful Life" is one of my favorite Christmas movies. Kase thinks it's really boring. I use to think so as a kid but my mom loved it so we would watch it anyway. Now I really love it and it makes me think of my mom. My tradition will be to make Kase watch it every year. ha ha.
What are some of your traditions?

Did I mention that I have a cold? Yuck. Eliza is snotty too. This morning we snuggled back in bed and slept an extra couple of hours. It was soo nice. I love snuggling that little baby. She likes to put her face on yours. And sometimes she'll stir awake just to make sure you're still there and then she'll fall back asleep. Love her to pieces.

Well that is all for now. Hope everyone is feeling Christmas-y!

6 Month Check-up

2010-12-10T18:03:00.000-05:00

Eliza had her doctor's visit today. On the way to the doctor she started crying and I couldn't see her in the back seat (yes we need one of those mirror things). I tried to comfort her and couldn't figure out what was wrong. Then I realized that her little beanie hat had fallen down over her eyes and she couldn't see. Oops. Sorry kiddo.

The doctor said she looks great. She weighs 15 lbs 9.5 oz and is 26.5 inches long. She's right on track for all of her developmental stuff and is even ahead on some stuff.

She did so good at the doctors and with getting her shots. She looked so cute sitting up all by herself on the table.

We took a video of Eliza's "pose" (as seen here) to show the doctor. She looked at it and said that our baby is really weird and that she has no idea what is going on but we should be really worried. OK I AM KIDDING! Sort of.

She did say that she thinks it is just a comfort thing and that it is a good sign that if we touch Eliza during "posing" she stops. BUT she said just to be safe we're going to get an EEG (I think that's what they called it. It's a brain scan or something another.) Just to make sure that there isn't anything weird going on.

UM WHAT!!!????

That sounded really scary. And as we left the doctor's office we were both really worried. But driving home, I had a very peaceful feeling come over me. I am 99.99999999% sure that Eliza is just fine. She is just a weird kid with a lot of personality and that is her "I am tired so I am going to my happy place" pose. But just to be sure we will find out.

So she will have this test on the 28th. And it doesn't sound very fun. And I think I will probably cry a lot because we have to keep her awake 2 hours past bedtime and wake her up 2 hours early and not feed her for 4 hours before the test and then watch them scan her little bitty brain. sighhhhh....

Poor little girl. But she is still really cute. And I think that everything will be all right.

Waiting in the cold waiting room at the doctor's office.

Firsts: Green Beanie

2010-12-09T20:47:00.001-05:00

This past Sunday Eliza tried her first baby food: Green beans.
For some reason I thought she would think they were tasty. This is what we found. ..

Before her first bite:
After:

Turns out she is not a fan of green beans. No matter how much I tried.

But she tried them. And that is what matters. Then Daddy made her feel all better.

Next up: Peas....

Firsts: Food, Bumbo, and Jumperoo

2010-12-08T19:18:00.001-05:00

Over Thanksgiving weekend, Eliza had a lot of first. She tried her very first bite of cereal. And yes we took tons of pictures and video taped it. We are those people.

She was really grumpy before the food...

But she decided quickly that she may like this after all....

She also finally got a bumbo.. this weird chair thingy that helps babies sit up. I got it at a consignment store for a really good price. She likes it a lot.

And finally, she got her christmas present from us, a jumperoo. (Like a walker only no walking and all jumping.) It is the first purchase we have ever made in the big item department that invovles pink, but we got a GREAT deal on it and it's cute. She loves it. Not only does it help her jump, but it helps her squeal a lot while playing with all of the toys.
Good thing she is eating cereal. She will need all those extra calories for all the jumping and squealing she plans on doing.

Totally worth it.

Recap of Thanksgiving

2010-12-07T18:42:00.000-05:00

Every year we alternate Thanksgiving and Christmas between Kase's side of the family and mine. We do this because my family lives kind of far away (especially when you have a little one) and it would be too much to travel to both on the same day. This year, we spent thanksgiving with my side of the family.

Eliza got to spend some time with her grandpop.... who looked a little like santa clause.....

She also got to spend some time with her memaw and great-memaw. Four generations..... three of which are Martynes....

It was hard because my memaw has alzheimer's disease and she couldn't really remember who we were. But she loved being around Eliza. She kept saying how beautiful she is and how she could tell she is a good baby. My mom said that my memaw hadn't smiled that much in a while.

It was Eliza's first thanksgiving and while she didn't get to eat any turkey, she did get to sport really cute mocassin's that my sister made her.

My dad grilled the turkey....soooooo.... good.... nice and smoked....

I had to keep Kase from devouring our child as an appetizer...

That is because I was saving her for desert....

It was a wonderful thanksgiving.

Eliza.... 6 months on the 6th

2010-12-06T23:55:00.001-05:00

Eliza turned 6 months on the 6th. It is hard to believe. While this will probably be boring to most of you, I want to remember what is going on with Eliza at this age so here it goes.

At 6 months she:

- squeals a lot.

- makes a fake coughing noise... sounds like an evil laugh.

- loves to touch faces, pull hair, and give mommy kisses.

- has her 2 bottom front teeth.

- can sit up by herself for a little while before falling over.

- has become attached to us and afraid of strangers.

- still loves the dog

- loves to take her medicine and vitamins.

- smiles a lot.

- still hates rolling over.

- is getting better about tummy time if you bribe her with your cellphone or tv control.

- still does her weird 'pose' thing. In fact, I think she does it even more often. :(

- loves to eat oatmeal cereal.

- does not like green beans.

-loves taking baths.

- reaches for one toy over another instead of just grabing whatever.

- goes by Eliza, Ellie, Junebug, bug, booger, Ellie bear.

- loves to sleep with us.

- likes when we sing to her.

- makes us laugh everyday.

Our weekday schedule goes something like this:

If she wakes up before 6 and doesn't go back to sleep, she gets to sleep with us. Which sometimes means Kase has to go sleep elsewhere because she takes up a lot of room.

6:30-7 nursing time.

7:30 (should be but I am late sometimes) drop her off at daycare where she plays, eats, naps all day. I head to work where I miss her all day.

5 pick her up. She is tired and happy to see me.

5:30 nurse, eat some cereal and nap.

Randomly: playtime, bathtime, storytime.

8:00 diaper change, lotion, medicine, vitamins, p.j.s, nurse for bedtime.

9:00 in bed hopefully.

Weekends we sleep in. We play, nap, shop, play, eat, nap, whatever really. I try to nurse and not use bottles to keep up supply. So far so good. We just started baby food yesterday. A post to come on that soon.

It is getting hard to get a good picture her. In these first photos she has hat hair and her lounging clothes because she hates to change clothes.

These next photos she has green beans on her face. oops.

It is so fun to begin to see her personality emerge. We love her so much. She goes to the doctor on Friday so we'll see what her stats are and find out about her crazy posing. Funny girl.

Stats:

15 lbs 9.5 oz

16.5 inches long

Noggin' size: 16.6"

Thankful

2010-11-24T14:30:00.000-05:00

There are so many things that I am thankful for this year. I am thankful for:

a wonderful husband who takes care of me and loves me even when I am grumpy...

a sweet beautiful baby girl who brings me so much joy everyday....

family that loves us and supports us....

friends who I can call family....

wonderful co-workers and job....

a clean house thanks to my husband (see above)....

the knowledge and truth the gospel brings me....

delicious food that I will be chowing down on tomorrow...

and lots more!

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

All Is (becoming) Calm, All is Bright

2010-11-17T07:55:00.000-05:00

Time is flying by so fast around here. I can't believe next week is THANKSGIVING!!! WHAT!! That means that Christmas is not too far away. In fact, this year Christmas is exactly one month after thanksgiving. Exactly.

I always wait till after Thanksgiving to put up the tree, and decorate for Christmas. I don't have a lot of my own Christmas traditions yet. But one that I do have is sending out Christmas cards usually (hopefully) at the beginning of December. Which is like oh... I don't know... 2 WEEKS AWAY.

This year, with a new baby, I am sooo looking forward to sending out picture Christmas cards. We have never done it before and now I am so excited to finally send one out with our cute little Eliza showing off her cute self. I love getting other peoples cards with pictures, and I hope they will love getting one from us too!

I have heard about Shutterfly from a lot of people and they have the CUTEST christmas cards. I am so excited to pick out which one we will use. I can't decide if I want to do one with the whole family or just the baby or maybe even a picture of both!

There are several cards that I really like. Like this one:

http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/cards-stationery/perfect-paisley-christmas-card?sortType=1&fa=2&storeNode=93476

And this one:

http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/cards-stationery/most-wonderful-time-christmas-card-5x7-flat?sortType=1&fa=4&storeNode=93476

And who could resist this one if they have a little santa of their very own:

http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/cards-stationery/oh-ho-ho-christmas-card-5x7-flat?sortType=1&fa=4&storeNode=93476

PLUS while I was shopping around I found that you can make calendars. They have some cute calendar themes and I think they would make good gifts for say.... yourself, or family. I kind of want to make one just for me to have at my desk at work.

Calendars are here: http://www.shutterfly.com/calendars/wall-calendars

Anyways. If you want to pick out your very own Christmas cards go here: http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/christmas-cards

I can't wait to get a cute picture taken and get our cards sent out. I always scrapbook other peoples picture cards and I love to see how the kids grow over the years. So cute.

Check them out and send me a Christmas card this year!!!

Bloggers get 50 free holiday cards from Shutterfly http://bit.ly/sfly2010

5 Months

2010-11-08T19:32:00.003-05:00

Eliza turned 5 months old on Saturday.

I can't believe it! Time is FLYING by!!!

We had our own little photo shoot with daddy there to make smiles.

Eliza At 5 Months Old:

- Gives us really huge smiles, but giggles are not so plentiful yet.

- LOVES to eat her toes.

- Loves to snuggle and sleep with us but she sleeps in her crib.

- She is sleeping through the night... most of the time.

- She loves to put everything in her mouth and drool on everything.

- She loves the dog and wants to pet her, talk to her, and smile at her.

- She squeals now and has a new high pitched scream reserved for late night diaper changes.

- She gives you huge open mouth kisses all over your face. Especially in the morning. It's nice because then you don't have to wet your face to wash it because it's already wet from drool.

- She loves to hold hands and have her face touched as she falls asleep.

- She still hates tummy time and rarely rolls over.

............AND....

She now has 2 teeth!!! Her bottom 2 center teeth just popped through last thursday. I haven't been able to get a picture of them yet because they are still really tiny and she won't be still. Those teeth are going to make those open mouth kisses of hers a little more tricky. My little baby is growing up.

We love her so much and can't wait to see what she does next!

Visiting

2010-11-07T15:44:00.001-05:00

Last Tuesday my brother John and his wife Leah came to visit. We went out to dinner and Eliza got to spend some time with them.

She takes after her aunt Leah in that they both look good in pink....

and she takes after uncle John in that they both have similar hairstyles.

We had a great time visiting with them. Come visit again soon!!!!

10.10.10

2010-11-06T13:19:00.000-04:00

On October 10th, we had the pleasure of attending some of our friends lovely wedding. It was victorian themed. The bride even made the wedding dress! We had a really nice time and it was a very sweet and special day.

Our dear friend Holly was sister of the groom and got to wear a super awesome dress with a super awesome bustle:

We had so much fun.

Rolling Over and QUESTION!!

2010-11-05T19:53:00.000-04:00

This will mostly be boring to everyone but grandparents. It may even be boring to them too. BUT if you are a parent or know anything about babies, at least skip to the last picture because I need your advice.

About a month ago, (October 11th to be exact) Eliza rolled over for the first time. She did it several times in a row and I haven't been able to get her to do it again. I caught one of the times with the camera.

YAY!!!! She did it!She HATES tummy time. She just cries and screams until you pick her up.

Maybe one day she will decide to roll over again. That would be nice. Just saying. No pressure or anything.

Eliza has a "pose" that she does when she is tired. It looks like this:

Right arm bent, left arm stretched out behind her, legs crossed. Not sure why she does that other than being tired and upset. Any one know anything about this?

Ghosts, Bats, Witches, Pumpkins, and Sharks

2010-11-04T06:23:00.000-04:00

For Eliza's first Halloween, she had a lot of cute clothes to wear. Her uncle John and aunt Leah L-O-V-E halloween. So they bought her sever super cute onesies which I L-O-V-E-D dressing her in. We prepared for Halloween by wearing these several times....

There is a super cute witch on this one: She also had special P.J.'s just for the occasion. They had bat feet:
We went to our church's trunk-or-treat. So fun. Eliza was the only shark there. I was a scuba diver and Kase was a life-guard. Our car played the Jaws music. You know. The duh duh. duh duh. duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh music:

All that sharking around wore her out: For actual Halloween, Kase was on a boy's trip with his dad and brother. My parents and sister came to visit for the weekend. Eliza loved her Mummy....

And her aunt Melissa.... And her Memaw.....

And her Gran-Pop......

My parent's and sister packed up and left before halloween evening. But Eliza and I loaded up and went to visit Grandma SuperDeb. She made us yummy chicken and dumplings and we relaxed and visited for the evening. I wanted to get pictures of Eliza with SuperDeb, but she (Eliza not SuperDeb) was WAY too grumpy. She was probably mad because she can't eat candy. ha ha. We had a wonderful 1st Halloween together and were so glad when Kase returned home later that night.

I am excited for future halloweens!

Change

2010-10-29T18:03:00.003-04:00

I don't like change. I am one of those people. I dread change. Worry about change. Put off change.

Until it happens, and then I get use to it and like it better and wouldn't change back if I could.

And then another change comes and I do it all over again.

We've had a lot of changes this year: Kase finishing school, Kase getting a job, Eliza joining our family, things at my work changing, so on.

So far things are better than they were before these changes, but I still can't seem to enjoy changing.

I guess in my new life with a child I need to get use to change. Eliza changes all the time which means our lives are going to constantly change. Forever.

Just when I get use to being a mother of a baby, she'll be a toddler, then a kid, a pre-teen, a teenager.... well you get the point.

It's kind of scary. But I guess it's life. I know that her changing means she is growing and is healthy and happy.

She will be 5 months in 1 week. Which means in about a month, we will be starting cereal and baby food. I am DREADING it for some reason. Isn't that bad? Probably because it's another change. It means my little baby is growing up. I really enjoy being her source of food. I really enjoy not having messy food all over the place and not having to drag out the highchair. I really enjoy snuggly mealtimes and having a light diaper bag. And speaking of diapers.... I enjoy there not being as many stinky ones... enough said right?

But I know I will enjoy seeing her face when she tries new foods, and picking out different things for her to taste next. I know I will enjoy watching her grow. I will enjoy when there is more laughing and less crying, when she starts chasing the dog around the house, when she squeals with excitement when daddy gets home.

I guess I need to focus on enjoying the moment. The phase that we are in RIGHT NOW. And when the next changes come, I will enjoy those too.

Beware of Sharks......Halloween pictures and post coming soon.....

A Sick Day

2010-10-21T07:00:00.002-04:00

I always knew that getting sick as a mother would be hard. I mean, being a mother is a job that you can't really call in sick for.

Then on Tuesday it happened.

I woke up sick. as. a. dog.

Eliza was kind enough to join me in bed as Kase left us heading off to work.

I thought about having him take her to daycare, but I thought I would feel better soon. I mean if you saw how cute she is, you would think she had healing powers. Really.

But sadly I was wrong about feeling better. Right about her being super cute though.

I got worse and worse and didn't even have enough energy to carry the baby around. We had to stay upstairs until after lunchtime because I was afraid to brave the stairs in my weak state, while carrying the little one. Plus I had to stay close to the bathroom. Ok too much information. Sorry.

It was rough.

Then Kase got sick and came home from work early. (He did brave the grocery isle for popsicles and sprite. He is heaven sent I say.) Then we all laid on the couch. Sick.

Eliza was so sweet to us and mostly slept all day. But I felt bad for the poor baby.

It was hard to be sick while having to take care of a baby. I can't even imagine how it would have been if she were mobile.

But I was just glad I was the sick one and she was just fine.

And we are finally feeling better now.

I survived my first sick day as a mother.

Maybe Eliza does have healing powers after all. Either way. She is sooo cute.

She has become a toe-eater. I could eat her too. Yummm.... (blurry picture from Kase's phone.)

Motherhood

2010-10-15T18:30:00.001-04:00

Sometimes I wonder when did I become that person who can't stop thinking about my baby? I try to make it so she's not the ONLY thing I talk about to people, but even when I talk about something else, I am secretly thinking about her. I mean really, she is cute. I kindof want to eat her. Just a little. I am obsessed.

But in a way, I am glad I am so crazy about her.

When she was first born, people would say to me "Isn't being a mom so great?!" I would think.... uhhh not really.

I mean I loved her sooooo much. Of course. I thought she was beautiful and sweet. And the first time I saw her I knew she was a miracle. But those first ohhh..... 7 weeks of her life were the hardest 7 weeks of my life.

Hours of crying (both she and I). No sleep. No energy. If I was home alone with the baby I didn't even have enough time to grab decent food or get a shower. Breastfeeding sucked in everyway possible. Painful and time-consuming. She ate for a hour and then was hungry again an hour later. I felt trapped.

I dreaded nighttime because I felt so lonely. Even though Kase helped, he couldn't feed the baby every 2 hours for me. Taking turns sleeping on the couch with the baby lumped on our chest because that is the only way she would sleep. Uncomfortable. Sleeping in our bed for a hour or so while Kase pacified a screaming baby downstairs felt luxurious and torturous all at once. A tease of sleep.

Did I mention our baby cried? A lot? She was hardly consolable and nothing I did (besides feed her) would help. I felt helpless and unhelpful.

I knew motherhood would be hard. I knew a newborn would be a lot of work. But I was totally unprepared for this.

Maybe I had the baby blues. Maybe I had a colicky baby. Maybe I had both. I don't know.

So when people talked about how motherhood was wonderful, I found it hard to relate. I longed to feel that way too.

I knew the rough weeks were a phase and they would pass but it didn't feel like it. It felt like life would stay that way forever. I imagined what it would be like to have a 6 month old insist upon sleeping on my chest everynight. She was going to be so heavy.

But time slowly crept by. She began to cry less and sleep more (and in her crib!). She began to smile at us and coo at us. She began to pat my face and grin when I come into the room.

And suddenly I found that motherhood was the most wonderful thing I have ever experienced.

Just one smile from my little girl was worth all the tears, the sacrifice, the sleepless nights, and the pain of those first weeks. She makes me feel wonderful. My little family makes me so excited to wake up everyday and so excited to get home everynight.

So that is why I am obsessed with my sweet baby. That is why I can't stop thinking about her. And yes.... being a mother is great.

Photographic Memories

2010-10-14T18:00:00.006-04:00

About a month ago I stumbled upon a really good portrait deal. We have friends and family that take awesome pictures but we haven't had the time, the money, or a calm-enough-baby to get pictures done since she was a newborn. And I am paranoid that her temper will drive any photographer away. This picture deal seemed so convenient, super cheap, and I thought we wouldn't bother anyone if Eliza screamed the whole time. We would just plan ahead, run over and get our photos made, no big deal.

I decided that we should get our pictures made.

I decided that Eliza had finally reached the point that maybe we could get some pictures without her screaming.

I made an appointment.

I made sure she got her beauty sleep (so she wouldn't be grumpy).

I made sure she was well fed.

I made sure we had changes of clothes and toys.

I made sure to explain to the studio that we had a 3.5 month old baby.

I made sure we were there on time for our appointment.

And then....

We waited.... (Eliza was happy and content)

and we waited.... (Eliza became tired and fell asleep)

and we waited..... (Eliza's pacifier began to make indent lines on her napping cheeks)

and almost 2 hours later they were ready to take our pictures. (Eliza was on the verge of unhappiness as was I)

But we got a few snap shots of her and us.....................................

..................... before things went down hill:

It ended up being very inconvenient, uncheap, and our screaming baby probably bothered everyone.

But even with all the trouble, some things are just priceless:

Next time we will be sticking with family and friends. So I will just apologize to them now for our future screaming baby. (That's for you Brianna and Angela.)

Eliza's 4 Month Check-up

2010-10-13T18:30:00.000-04:00

Eliza had her check-up today. This is mostly for my memory, so you don't have to read if you won't want to.

We were there FOREVER in our check-up room because they just got new computer systems and they are slow figuring everything out. But it went well otherwise.

I felt so bad when they gave her her shots, but she handled them like a champ.

She is healthy and right on track.

She laughed for the first time the other day and it was the sweetest sound. Then on Monday, she rolled over several times! FINALLY!!! But now she won't do it anymore, she just lays there and cries. Sighhh....

She currently weighs 14 lbs 2.5 oz (50%) and is 25 inches long (75%-90%). So she is long and skinny.

We had fun playing and waiting for the doctor. Minus the shots part it was a good time.

Side note: This past weekend we were able to go to a friend's wedding. It was victorian styled with beautiful dresses with bustles. It was soooo gorgeous. We had a wonderful time.

We also had date night last Friday and saw the movie Devil, which I guess was a good movie but it made me feel icky, so I can't really recommend it if that makes sense. But it was fun to spend time with Kase while being baby-free.

I would like to thank my awesome mother-in-law for watching Eliza. She rocks.

4 Months

2010-10-06T08:53:00.006-04:00

Eliza is 4 months today. I remember when I heard that you could try letting your baby cry-it-out at 4 months that seemed SO FAR AWAY. But it has arrived. And luckily, we don't have to let her cry it out because she already sleeps through the night. Yay. Cause I don't think I could make it letting her cry.

At 4 months Eliza is:

- Still sleeping through the night. (YAY!!!) Lately she has been coming home from daycare, eating, sleeping, eating, then going to bed around 9:30. I miss playing with her but she is too tired to play!

- She still smiles and coos and makes girgling noises, but no laughs yet. Just squeels.

- She has not rolled over yet, and hates tummy time so she may never roll over. Ever.

- She has a really really really bad temper.

- She loves to grab at things and look at new toys.

- She still loves baths.

- She loves this little blue bird that hangs on her car seat. She pulls it and tries to eat it.

- She is getting bigger and bigger and is very long. Not sure how much she weighs, but we'll find out in a week when she has her 4 month check up.

- She makes funny faces and makes everyone laugh.

- She tries to talk and kicks her legs so fast when you sing to her.

- She likes to look at pictures in her books.

- She loves her blue elephant. His name is Boyd K. Packaderm. (Erin I thought you would appreciate that.) ha ha.

- She tries really hard to sit up but she doesn't have the abs yet.

We love Eliza so much and she makes us so happy everyday. We can't wait to see what she does next!

gratitude

2010-10-04T07:30:00.000-04:00

This past weekend, we spent time with my parents who came into town to see Ms. Eliza. It was fun to visit and eat good food.

We also watched general conference. Favorite quote:

"To live with gratitude in your heart is to touch a piece of heaven"- President Monson.

Pretty sure I got that right.

Anyways. I am grateful for such a lovely weekend.

I am grateful for wonderful parents and siblings and parents-in-law and siblings-in-law.

I am grateful for my beautiful sweet daughter and her smiles.

I am grateful for my sweet amazing husband who is so patient and loving.

I hope to live with more gratitude in my heart everyday.

Pictures to come soon!!

Remember September

2010-09-26T15:00:00.000-04:00

This month has been busy and fun. Work has been busy and tiring but we have managed a little bit of fun in between work days.

Eliza fit into a really cute dress and had a matching head band. Score!
On September 6th Eliza turned 3 months. She makes us laugh:

Ryan left for his mission to Las Vegas:

One last feel of the guns.

The boys.

Uncle Ry-run. Eliza will miss him. As we all will.

Aunt Katie and Uncle Scooter.

Eliza got a high chair for future use. We tried it out. It's still a little big and she isn't sure what to do in it yet, but I think it will work.

OK FINALLY I AM CAUGHT UP! Mark this day in the books! Don't get too excited or have hopes that it will stay this way but come back and visit soon. You never know!!!

This weekend we are: going to a wedding, having girls day, and relaxing together. Have a great one!

Update: August

2010-09-25T09:00:00.000-04:00

August 6th, Eliza turned 2 months. She became a much better baby with much less crying.

Kase's brother, Ryan, went to the temple for the first time. It was a special day.

Eliza and I laid around the house a lot:

Eliza had to get her first shots. She was sad:

And she had swollen thighs. :(

But she got better and we played around the house a lot:

She smiled for the first time in August. She re-inacted her first smile for me as seen here:

Uncle Ryan hung out with Eliza a lot before he had to leave for his mission:

And he showed her his guns:

And Eliza got to go to her first Drive-in movie.

Uncle Ryan was her date:

Eliza had a good August:

Update: Eliza's Blessing

2010-09-24T18:00:00.000-04:00

Eliza was blessed on August 1st. For those who don't know, this is a special day where she her name is announced and a special prayer of blessings is said for her.

Getting ready for her special day. Her great-grandmother Lois made her pretty white dress:

Me, Eliza, Mom

Sister-in-Law Leah, Sister Melissa, Me, Eliza, MomBrother John, Me, Eliza, Dad

Note how fascinated Eliza is with her uncle John.

We had everyone in both of our families here. It was so special.

My sister is missing in this picture. She is off socializing somewhere and didn't know we were taking photos. I was so glad my brother and his wife could come visit.

All the men in Eliza's life, except for Grandpa Byron.

Our dear friends Chris and Erin with their beautiful daughter Carly. She moves to quick to be caught looking at the camera. :)

Leah made an awesome cake with Eliza's face. I got to fullfill my dreams of eating my baby cause she is so cute.

Eliza with Aunt Leah and Uncle John.

What a wonderful day!

Update: Summer Trip to Idaho

2010-09-23T18:00:00.001-04:00

The end of July we headed out to Salt Lake City, Utah, and Montpelier, Idaho, to visit Kase's grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins. Kase's parents, and all of this brothers and their families were able to go too! We had so much fun.

Our nephew Thomas, Kase, and Eliza

Nephew Thomas and Niece Sophie

Sister-in-law Angela

Eliza with her Great-Grandma Lois and Great Grandpa Byron

She loved them immediately

Kase and Aunt Linda at Bear Lake

Bear Lake

Eliza giving her first talk :)

Sister-in-law Katie and Kase's Brother Scott

Eliza, Laura, and Kase's brother Ryan

Salt Lake Temple

Family Photo Op

Eliza and her burp cloth

We had a WONDERFUL time.

Update: First Half of July/Eliza is 1 Month Old

2010-09-22T18:00:00.001-04:00

Eliza's 1st bottle (a break for Mom. Yay!): Hanging out around the house:

Crying a lot:

Before Kase was born, they thought he might be a girl. His grandmother bought him this lovely pink number. Of course he did not get to wear it, but Eliza did.

Eliza turned one month old July 6th, and she cried about it:

She started to like baths better and grab at things:

Hanging out with daddy:

Eliza's first baseball game with our dear friends:

Napping a lot:

Erin I Stole Your Idea

2010-09-22T17:50:00.001-04:00

My friend has monthly pictures of her cute little girl on the side of her blog and I love looking at them to see how she changes every month. So I stole her idea. (Hope you don't mind.) Check it out to the right:

Over there----------------------------->

Also, I am actually going to post every day until I get caught up.

Lots of pictures to come.

Kase said he hopes you have built your ark because a flood of cuteness is heading your way. :)

Summer Update: The Month of June/Eliza's First Few Weeks

2010-09-21T18:00:00.000-04:00

Eliza 3 days old with her baby tan (jaundice):

Meeting her uncle John (my brother): She screamed and cried and then when he took her she stopped and just stared at him. She loves her uncle John.

Meeting her great-grandmother, My Memaw Martyne:

My mom, Eliza Martyne, and Memaw Martyne

Her first bath, not sure if she likes it yet:

Eliza and mommy hanging out a lot:

June was a great month!

Randomness

2010-09-17T07:01:00.001-04:00

Our computer is still down. We probably won't get it back until the begining of October... so no pictures. Sorry.

But as an update, this week has been busy with work. Last night I was so tired I came home and passed out on the couch.

This week, Eliza started grabbing toys with her hands. She discovered her feet and loves to grab them too. I have been stressed about daycare. She has been super fussy there. They called her high maintenance. That she may be, but I think she is just really tired and has trouble sleeping there. But I am not sure what to do. I don't want them to dread taking care of the angry baby who cries a lot. I also don't want her to be so upset. If anyone has advice please help!

On a fun positive note, there are 2 other girl babies her age at daycare and we found out they both live one street down from us! Plus there is another girl baby on that same street her age. PLUS there is a cute boy baby who lives down the street from us who is 6 months older than the girls. So I am hoping they will all be good friends and play together. That is fun. (Brianna I am thinking they will all have crushes on your little one (I don't want to say his name for privacy reasons)) Wow look at all those parenthesis!

So this weekend we will be sleeping, shopping, and spending time with family. Hope everyone has a great weekend.

Ry-Run

2010-09-07T19:05:00.000-04:00

Kase and I are very blessed in that we both come from wonderful families. Over the years each of our families have experienced different changes (added sisters-in-law, babies, so on) that have made them even better. Kase's side of the family is about to have another change.

You see, Kase is one of four boys. They are all wonderful boys. Tommy, Kase's older brother, is a good leader and loves the outdoors. He'll ask you all kinds of questions and listen when you talk. He can convince you to do lots of things and smiles with a mischievous boyish grin.

Kase, is the second oldest. Obviously I think he is pretty awesome. He is kind and sweet. He is up for just about anything and can talk to just about anyone. He is my best friend and always opens doors for me. He is a wonderful father and husband. I don't want to dwell too much on how awesome he is because, you see, this post isn't about him.

Scott, is the third boy. He is the tallest and has great taste in clothes. He gives great hugs and always has a smile on his face. He has a great sense of humor and makes yummy queso dip.

Now we come to the youngest, Ryan. Ryan is known as the child-whisperer. He is so good with his nieces and nephew. They all love their Ry-run, as they call him, and flock to him at family gatherings. He is funny and sweet. He always notices when you get a haircut or when your baby girl looks particularly cute. He wears really awesome shorts. He is quiet but is also very funny and easy to talk to. He also always helps out when he comes over, putting up dishes or letting out our dog. How great is that?

This post is about Ryan.

You see, on Monday Ryan is leaving to go on a 2 year mission for our church. He will serve and share the gospel with people in Las Vegas. We will all miss him very much. While he is gone we will all grow older. Nieces and nephews will be older when he returns, perhaps he will even have a new niece or nephew or two. Ryan will grow older as well. He will return home a different person from when he left. An even better person. He will be blessed for his service in ways that he cannot imagine.

He will also be a missionary who will bless others for generations to come. Just as a missionary blessed my parents by bringing them the gospel which in turn blessed me with the gospel in my life. Because of this, I met Kase and married into a wonderful family. With wonderful brothers-in-law. Especially Ryan.

We will all miss Ryan while he is gone. We will write him and wait for his phone calls and we will be at the airport in 2 years to welcome him home. We are all proud of him. And when he returns, he will once again be our Ry-run.

3 months

2010-09-06T20:00:00.001-04:00

Today Eliza turned 3 months! I can't believe how fast time is flying. My friend Erin always posts about what her cutie pie daughter is doing on her month marks and I am going to do the same. I think it's a good way to remember.

Eliza at 3 months:

- She has started cooing and making noises. She just recently squealed for the first time. We LOVE it.

- She blows lots of bubbles and drools A LOT.

- She has been sleeping from 9 or 10 until around 6. AND she sleeps in her crib. YAY!

- She still has lots of hair and we're still not sure what color her eyes are.

- She loves to sleep in footy pajamas.

- She loves to take naps snuggled up with her mommy.

- She loves to kick and move her arms around.

- She is very smiley after she is well rested and well fed.

- She is very grumpy when she is hungry or tired.

- She loves to be sung to. Her favorites are: I am a child of god, love is spoken here, twinkle twinkle little star, and miss mary mack.

- She loves her daddy and mommy and follows them around the room with her eyes.

We love Eliza more than we ever though we could. She makes us smile every day and makes us laugh. She is such a joy and we love experiencing her little milestones and changes. She is a character and we feel so blessed to have her in our lives.

Happy 3 months Ellie!

Remember that time...

2010-08-27T07:11:00.000-04:00

When I was going to blog a lot and post a lot of pictures and had every intention of actually doing so?

Well that was before my computer got sick.

Very very sick.

It won't even turn on sick.

Stupid spyware and/or virus thingy.

Anyways. Pictures and summer updates will have to come later.

This weekend should be great.

Friday we are going to the drive-in theater in Maryville. You should too.

Saturday we are going to Babies R Us. So fun. And expensive. Sighhhh...

Sunday we are having family dinner with the Clapps. Yummmm....

Sounds like a perfect weekend to wind up August.

Hope you have a great weekend too!

Summer Catch Up Photo Post #1 or Eliza's Birth and Coming Home

2010-08-25T06:32:00.001-04:00

So I am finally posting pictures and plan on catching up on our summer and Eliza's life. Here are pictures from Eliza's birth and coming home from the hospital:

June 6th waiting for Eliza to join us:

She arrived 5:50 a.m. 6/6/10. 8 lbs 2 oz 21 inches:

She was a tired baby:

With cute toes and feet:

She had a proud daddy.....

who loved her enough already to change her first stinky diaper (along with help from Holly.)

She met her Pop (my dad):

her Grandpa (Kase's dad):

her Memaw (my mom):

her Grandma SuperDeb (Kase's mom):

Her Uncle Scott and Aunt Katie:

Her Aunt Melissa and all of her other Uncles and Aunts that I didn't get pictures of for some reason. Blame it on the drugs:

Then we waited in the hospital to go home:

And finally we bundled up and got ready to go out:

And we finally made it home with sweet little Eliza:

It was a tiring and amazing few days:

Goings on....

2010-08-23T06:30:00.000-04:00

So another weekend has past and I still have not uploaded any pictures. I know, I am horrible. Sighhhh....

But here is what we did last week.

- Eliza attended her first church softball game to watch her daddy pitch. She watched whole game with no crying and no sleeping!

- Speaking of sleeping... Eliza has been sleeping better. Any 2.5 month old that sleeps from 9 to 3 or 4 and then goes back to sleep is doing pretty good I think. Plus some nights she does better. Like last night she slept from 10 to 6. That was luxurious. But I still have to get up and pump. But it's not so bad.

- Daycare is rough. The dropping her off part. She doesn't seem to notice but I don't like it.

- Picking her up from daycare is pretty awesome. Everyday I race over to pick her up and she mostly looks at me like she didn't realize I was gone.

- Eliza has been SUPER tired after daycare. I like to think it is because she is having fun, but it's probably because she is stressed and wondering what is going on. So we usually come home, eat diner, nap on the couch together (the highlight of my day, I love snuggling) eat again and go to bed.

- Pumping at work has been.... interesting. I have a cubicle so I can't just shut my door and have privacy. I have been finding locations with blinds/no windows and a door lock. Then I have to put a note on the door "In use for 15 minutes. Thanks." Then I have to pray that noone will want to come in while I am doing my thing. I also strongly dislike putting all the pump pieces together, taking them apart, washing them, and repeating 2 or 3 times a day. But it's totally worth it for my little one. Oh and SO much cheaper than formula.

- Speaking of breastfeeding, it's not so bad anymore. It doesn't take as long, it doesn't hurt, and I kindof look forward to it at the end of the day. Plus I love that Eliza likes it and I am the only one that does that with her. It's our special thing I guess. I know people tell you this, but at the begining breastfeeding was soooo horrible it was hard to believe them. But it's true. It does get better and the pain and crying was worth it.

- Eliza has learned that her hands can tug on blankets, shirts, hair. It's her new favorite thing.

- Today Eliza gets to stay home and snuggle with daddy. Then it's softball time again. Looks like a pretty good Monday after all.

So that is what's going on here. I won't lie, pictures may or may not be uploaded this coming weekend. We'll see. I need faster internet and to take less pictures. Sighhh.

Hello....

2010-08-16T07:30:00.001-04:00

This is Eliza. Aka Ellie, aka June bug, aka Bug, aka Booger.

Sometimes she goes by julie droolie or smellie ellie.

She is 10 weeks old, aka 2 months and 1 week.

Sometimes she smiles as seen in above picture.

Lately, she also makes cooing noises, but mostly at her daddy.

She loves baths and having her hair blow dried.

She does not love taking medicine or having her diaper changed.

Her pet peeve is when someone picks her up with cold hands.

She has a temper and can scream really loud.

She doesn't cry as much as she use to. (which was ALL. OF. THE. TIME.)

She has started sleeping more and in her own bed.

Her mommy loves to pick out clothes for her to wear and smother her with kisses.

She has lots of clothes, but could always use more.

She now weighs 12 lbs 2 oz and is now 23 in long.

She got her first shots last week. She screamed. Then, after being handed to her mommy, she fell asleep immediately.

She loves to eat.

A lot.

Her thighs are getting chunky, but her mini skirts still fit.

She still has lots of hair.

She has a SuperDeb, Memaw, Grandpa, and Pop that all love her. Along with awesome aunts and uncles who love her too.

Her parents love her more than anything.

Soon I will post pictures.

Ones that aren't blurry from my cellphone.

But today I go back to work, and I leave my precious baby bug with complete strangers at a daycare.

That doesn't seem right.

But I have to work and make money so we can feed, clothe, and house my sweet baby bug.

So I've gotta do what I've gotta do.

Maybe if I post pictures of the baby up here, my parents will actually read my blog.

June and July Blessings

2010-08-03T14:24:00.005-04:00

We have been super busy the last few months. I still don't have a way to upload pics as our internet is down right now and I am bumming internet in order to post.

June was super hard with a new baby. She cried all. of. the. time. I was sleep deprived and stressed and overwhelmed. But our little Ellie was beautiful and amazing. Breastfeeding was the hardest part, and I still have issues with it. But we are getting used to it I think. We had a ton of visits to the doctor for checkups and tests to figure out what the fluid in her right kidney was caused by. More on that in a sec. Eliza was jaundiced at first, but got over that. She was born 8 lb 2 oz, and dropped down to 7 lb 10 oz, but then in two weeks went up to 9 lb 1 oz! Plus she finally got a cute belly button.

July was even more busy. I visited my parents for a week for my mother's birthday. Then we headed out to Idaho to visit Kase's grandparents. They are so sweet. The whole family was able to make it out there. We had so much fun. Eliza got to meet her greatgrandparents and her great aunts and uncle. We got to meet new aunt Candy and new Uncle Randy. They are awesome. Candy if you ever read this, come visit us Eliza loves you. :) We were able to go to the Salt Lake Temple, which was so amazing. It is beautiful inside. We miss everyone already. Thank you for letting us visit.

Eliza really calmed down over vacation. She turned 6 weeks and suddenly stopped crying all of the time. She still cries, but it is a different cry. She is able to be consoled and she actually sleeps for 3 or 4 hours at a time at night!!! What a blessing!!!

Eliza had another exam last friday. They put an IV in and a catheter (spelling?) and ran a test to see why the fluid is stuck in her right kidney. They found out it is an enlarged mega ureter, the tube from the kidney to her bladder. Everything is working on that side, just a little slow. So no surgery for now. We just have to check it again in 6 months. We feel very blessed by this.

August 1st Eliza was blessed at our church. I was so nervous because she cries a lot, but she didn't cry at all! It was such a sweet blessing. I felt so blessed to have a husband who could be an instrument in the Lord's hands and give her such a sweet blessing. All of our family was there and it was so nice to have them all together.

The past two months have been the most amazing of my life. I go back to work in 2 weeks. I am so sad to leave our little precious girl during the day, but I have to do what I have to do. She will be watched over, I know.

Being a mother has been amazing. I love Eliza more that I could have ever imagined or could explain. I love her father more too, which I thought was impossible as I loved him so much already. I miss her when I am away from her and can't wait to get to her. It's amazing how much she has changed over the last 8 weeks. I look forward to the future with my sweet family.

Pictures will come soon. I really mean it.

Update

2010-07-01T16:30:00.009-04:00

One day I will blog again.

But for now I am busy dealing with a lot of this:

And a little bit of this:

She is so worth it.

More to come soon....

Baby Story

2010-06-10T14:14:00.006-04:00

Eliza Martyne Clapp is here!

8 lbs 2 oz 21 inches.

Born 6/6/10 at 5:51 a.m.

I want to write Eliza's birth story. I attempted to write it in my journal but typing is faster so I am going to do this instead. So if you get grossed out you may not want to read it!

It all started Saturday. We went for a long walk around the neighborhood hoping it would jump start something. Then we ate big lunch and spent time with some of my family who were in town. The day winded down and we decided she wasn't going to come that day. But I prayed so hard that she would come before my parents had to leave to go home. (my dad and sister were going out of town.)

Then at around 11 I had this weird cramp. It actually hurt. I decided maybe she was coming. So I showered and went to bed to sleep as much as I could. I didn't know what contractions would feel like, but I decided these hurt so they must be something. They started out about 40 minutes apart, then down to 20. I woke up hurting and the contractions were about 10 minutes apart so I got dressed while I still could. Then they were 5 to seven minutes apart. It was 2 am. I called the doctor and the hospital. The hospital asked how long the contractions had been close together. The real answer was about 20 minutes, but I lied and said an hour because I knew things were going fast. They told me to come in.

We got to the hospital and they put me in the triage room. I was hurting but it wasn't so bad. They checked me and I was 8 cm dilated so they admitted me and got us to a room. We got to our room at 3 am. I was still not feeling horrible, but I felt like I wanted to get an epidural just to be safe. It seemed scary. So they got me an epidural. It didn't really hurt or anything, but it felt weird and I was nervous.

After the epidural kicked in I felt better. Just a lot of pressure with each contraction. My parents and sister arrived and came to visit. The nurse came to check me again so my family left the room. The nurse said I was ready to push. She broke my water. It was 4 something, not sure exactly. Kase's parents had arrived but had to wait outside.

All the staff came in, I didn't know what to expect. They started counting and I started pushing. Kase was so helpful encouraging me. Pushing didn't hurt like I thought it would, but it did take FOREVER! I thought she would never ever come. The nurses bragged on me and said I was nice and that I was a natural breather. I just felt like I had to get this done and there was not enough energy to be mean.

I was worried that I wouldn't be able to get the baby out so I focused and tried to ignore the pain or the thought that I may die soon.

Finally, they called the doctor in so I new it was getting closer. My doctor wasn't on call so I had a different doctor. She wasn't as encouraging as the nurses, so I was not a big fan but she seemed nice.

I felt like my head might explode towards the end. And finally at 5:51 am she came out. That part hurt but then so relieving! She was beautiful, Kase cut her cord and they handed her to me. She was screaming, but when she heard my voice she turned and looked at me and stopped crying. I fell in love right then. She was beautiful with lots of dark curly hair.

The nurses took her to weigh and clean her. I was bleeding a lot so they kept pressing on my belly to try and stop the bleeding and that HURT more than anything!

Finally, they left me, Kase, and the baby alone. Our little family said a prayer together. We were so grateful she had finally joined us and everything was so good.

Kase said he thought her name was Eliza, one of the ones on our list. So Eliza joined our family.

Both of our parents and my sister were able to come in after her birth and meet her. It was so nice to have them there and share that time with them.

Things have been good. I am feeling better everyday. I worry about her and hope that she is getting enough to eat. Things are hard, which I expected, but I love her so much.

We are so blessed to have this sweet spirit with us. I love Kase so much and it is wonderful to see him in a different and new light. He is so good to me and to the baby. I melt everytime he holds her. I could not ask for a better husband.

I think I remembered everything.

Pictures to come!

Dear Baby,

2010-06-04T18:00:00.000-04:00

The doctor teased me this week. On Tuesday, he said you may be here within the week. Being dilated to 7 cm seemed to make him think that. Your father and I got so excited and nervous. We made sure our bags were packed. We ate a good meal. We couldn't sleep from the excitment so we sang songs until we finally slept.

On Wednesday, I felt awful. I was so glad to feel awful. I just knew you would be here soon!

But I think the doctor jinxed us. On Thursday, I woke up and felt fine. Completely normal. It seems now that you will never come!

You see, I used to be very nervous about your arrival. In fact, I was fine with waiting another 2 weeks. You seemed very content where you are, and I was fairly comfortable. The whole delivery thing seemed scary. But now all that has changed. The thought of you finally joining us made me so excited, and now I can't wait! I wish for labor pains. (I am sure I will regret that.)Plus, I am not so comfortable anymore.

Now, I get up everyday and go to work hoping it will be my last day for a while. Every weird feeling I have I think maybe it could be the start of labor. Family is anxiously awaiting our phone call saying you're on your way. I debate calling the doctor to see if he is sure you can't just come now.

But nothing happens.

All because the doctor jinxed us.

Why won't you join us? We are ready. I think you are too. Please hurry.

Love,

Your mother

Dear Orange Juice,

2010-05-26T08:00:00.000-04:00

Image from here

Let me count the ways that I love thee.

Obviously you taste delicious. Especially with bits of pulp, or maybe some added pineapple juice.

When you were on my mother's grocery list, you were simply refered to as OJ. Which puzzled me as a child, I wondered what you, a sweet innocent juice, had to do with Mr. Simpson.

During the summer, Mother would often turn you into a popsicle. Sooo good. When you're frozen you still remind me of my childhood.

You taste soooo good with breakfast, or even as a little snack.

But now, my delicious treat, a baby has come between us. And you have left me with a burning heart, or as some would say heart-burn.

So it is that I must say farewell. Atleast for a while.

But don't worry. I am sure you will show up on my grocery list soon, OJ.

And one day popsicles will be made for my little girl.

Until then.....

The Nursery

2010-05-20T18:00:00.001-04:00

The baby's room is mostly done. I still have pictures and shelves that will be hung on the wall and her closet still needs a little organization.

These pictures aren't the best. The color is off. The room is a minty green, not neon green. It is cuter in real life. :) Plus I didn't get a good picture of the window. Oh well.

I made this mobile. It still needs a little work, but it's the thought that counts you know.

Now we just need the baby!

Good vs Bad

2010-05-13T18:00:00.002-04:00

I couldn't decide if I should post this because I don't want to blab on and on about pregnancy, but that is pretty much all I have to blab about. So if you don't want to hear it then don't read it. :)

As I have said before being pregnant hasn't been so bad. I still have 4 weeks left, which seems REALLY soon, but I have heard that things go down hill from here. But so far, I haven't minded pregnancy and sometimes I kind of like it. Either way, I want to remember what my 1st pregancy was like. (I am not going to remember the 1st trimester, that was no fun.)

So to document for myself, here is my

Good and Bad List of Being "With Child":

Good: Realizing how powerful your body really is. It changes everyday is growing a little person.

Bad: Changing everyday. You wake up to new problems all the time. One day you suddenly have excessive heartburn, swollen feet, a non-existant bellybutton, or your favorite shirt stops fitting overnight.

Good: You have a reason to be lazy and not feel bad for it. You are growing a person after all.

Bad: Sometimes you are too tired to doing anything, even when you really want to. I really want to scrapbook, but I am too tired. Or you have the energy, but you really shouldn't be climbing on ladders to trim bushes. You have to rely on someone else to do those things.

Good: You get to decorate a new room! Pick out your favorite colors for your nursery.

Bad: All the "nesting" drives you crazy sometimes. (And those around you. A-hem... Kase)

Good: You get presents for the baby and they are really cute!

Bad: Sometimes when you open a baby present, you don't know what it is so you have to pretend like you do. I am not good at pretending.

Good: You feel even closer to your spouse because you are growing together and loving this baby you will soon have.

Bad: Everytime to try to get a good hug from your spouse your belly gets in the way.

Good: I actually feel pretty most of the time. I know some people don't feel that way when pregnant, but I like my belly. I feel like my body has a purpose. It's not just about me. I know other people might not think I look pretty, but I like me and that is what matters.

Bad: Even when you feel pretty people still comment on how huge you are today. It still doesn't sound good.

Good: Feeling the baby move. First it starts out as a little butterfly feeling. Then she gets so big you can feel or see that a leg/foot/butt is moving around. Very alien like but cool.

Good: Watching and feeling the baby grow over time. From a little dot in a picture, to a large wiggling thing.

Good: Loving a little person more than you ever thought you could and you haven't even met her yet.

Well looks like the Good outweighs the bad. Here is hoping for more Good to come.

Baby Shower Numero Tres aka Work Family Shower

2010-05-11T18:00:00.000-04:00

I cannot say enough good things about the people I work with. They are awesome. And not just because they bought me terrific presents. :)

My work family threw me a baby shower. It was AMAZING.

Although I did get really nervous opening gifts in front of people. (There are more people at the shower at other tables, but I don't have a picture of everyone.)
There was YUMMY FOOD: (Not pictured is HOMEMADE VANILLA ICECREAM. My favorite.)

And of course a delicious homemade cake filled with strawberries. Oh AND it's cute:

And let's not forget the amazing gifts. Adorable stuff too. We even go the travel system AND pack-n-playI have been dying to have:

After it was over, my car was loaded full of loot. It was so thoughtful of my co-workers and bosses to do this for me. I am so blessed to work with such amazing people. I was overwhelmed by all they did for us. I cannot thank them enough.

Thank you!

Baby Shower Numero Dos aka Family Family Shower

2010-05-07T18:00:00.001-04:00

My wonderful sister-in-laws, Angela and Katie, threw me a baby shower. It was so much fun and so nice to spend time with family.

Food:

Family:

Kase's Cousin Reagan

Melanie & Holly

Cousin Nikki

Niece Sophie

Laura & Holly

Before Kase was born, they thought he would be a girl. His grandmother had bought some dresses for Girl Kase and mailed them to his mother. Since he wasn't a girl, he obviously didn't want to wear such cute little dresses. So his mother stored these dresses away for the future..... She passed these cute dresses onto our sweet little daughter.

Mother-in-law SuperDeb, Laura, & Kase

Sister-in-law Angela & Laura

Dad, Laura, & Mom

Mom, Sister Melissa, & Laura

Mom & Laura

Thank you everyone!!

Baby Shower Numero Uno aka Church Family Shower

2010-05-06T18:00:00.003-04:00

My friend at church, Lea Ann, threw a sweet baby shower for me at her house. Several friends from church came and spoiled me and our little one.

Games: Everyone had to draw a baby on a piece of paper on top of their heads. Then I got to pick the best baby. I picked the one my mom drew. I didn't know it was her drawing. It was just the only baby with a cute face (and arms and legs).

Presents: Everyone was so nice and the baby got some really cute dresses and onesies. It was a really fun time.

Thank you!

Guess Who

2010-05-04T08:02:00.008-04:00

Laura

Kase

Laura

Kase

This is one of my favorite pictures of him. He told his mom he wanted a Skunk cake for his birthday. Random.

I was looking through old pictures and came across these. I wonder what our baby will look like?

I see brown eyes and hair in our future.

But you never know!

About 6 more weeks left!

Plans

2010-04-30T18:15:00.000-04:00

Before I get into writing this post, let me just say that I know it may be a little controversial. I do not mean for it to be. But lately I have heard many different opinions and I realize this can be a touchy subject. I am just sharing my thoughts. Feel free to share yours.

Before I was pregnant, I always new it would be hard. Pregnancy would be hard, delivery, and parenthood would be hard. But I also knew that these experiences would be wonderful. Above all, I know that we have no idea what we are getting ourselves into.

So far pregnancy has been great. Changes come all the time: new feelings, new phases, a bigger belly. It has been interesting and I feel blessed to have had a fairly pleasant pregnancy so far.

One of the difficult things, atleast for me, is not knowing what to expect. I am a planner after all. We have no idea when this baby will decide to join us. We have no idea if she will be a super needy baby(like her mother) or a laid back baby (like her father). We have no idea what we feel like as parents. I could go on forever. But I guess part of becoming a parent is learning to give over some control. It will be an interesting ride.

Also, one of the most difficult things for me has been visiting daycares. It is so hard to go into a place and decide if the people there will take good care of your baby. If the atmosphere of a place is safe for your baby. It is so hard to look at people and realize they may be taking care of your baby for a large part of the day. They may be the ones who see your baby reach a new milestone for the first time, even before you do. No matter how nice these people seem, it breaks my heart and I haven't even met our little one yet.

Growing up, I always fully expected to be a stay at home mother one day, and maybe one day I will be. I know being a stay at home mom is hard. It is a lot of work. By no means do I think that it is all fun and games. But I wish I could be the one who creates the atmosphere my child will be surrounded by. I wish I could be the one who sees all of our daughter's milestones. I wish I could be with my baby and make sure she is safe and loved all day.

I know there are people who look down on working mothers. I have already experienced some of these judgments. I also know stay at home moms are also judged in the world today. You just can't win I guess. I think that every family is different and you have to do what you have to do to make things work. So people shouldn't judge.

Despite others judgments, I will not be a working mother because we want to afford fancy things or want cable tv. We do not live frivolously. I will not be a working mother because I think my career is more important than my family. I will be working because it is what is best for our family at this time.

Don't get me wrong. I have a wonderful job. I have been blessed with the most amazing co-workers. I feel a purpose in what I do for a living. I (mostly) like going to work everday. I am extremely thankful for the opportunity to work where I work with the people that I work with.

But I will miss my baby.

I hope I don't sound too whiney. We are very blessed with the amazing opportunity to have a child. I have a wonderful husband who is supportive and caring and sweet. He works so hard and is striving to provide for our family. I honestly could not ask for a better partner. We both have wonderful parents and siblings who are there if/when we need them.

Does anyone have any working mom advice? We thought about finding and paying someone we know to take care of the baby at their home. But I don't know anyone who would be interested in this commitment.

I know that everything will work out just fine. I am going to treasure the time I get to take off of work to spend with our baby. I know it will all be ok.

This baby stuff is hard already. But it's worth it.

Flying High

2010-04-25T15:22:00.000-04:00

Kase loves his internship with ORNL. It has been such a blessing to us. Last week he got to ride in a helicopter and shoot video out the side. He is the tiny person in the front of the helicopter hanging out the door with a video camera.

Awesome for him. He loved it. (Glad I don't have to do anything like that!)

I am very proud of him. I love him.

In other news, I have lots to write about. I am just too lazy and tired. Eventually I will blog about all the lovely baby showers I have been given lately. And I will blog about the nursery, which is looking pretty good I must say. It is almost ready for when our little love decides to join us.

Hey Look Me Over

2010-04-14T23:06:00.002-04:00

My mom use to sing a song to us as kids. It goes something like....

"hey look me over, lend me your ear. Fresh out of clover, mortgage up to here, but don't pass the plate folks, don't pass the cup. I figure whenever you're down and out the only way is up. And I'll be up like a rosebud, high on the vine. Don't thumb your nose, but take a tip from mine. I'm a little bit short of elbow room but let me get me some and look out world here I come."

Anyways. Sometimes I do feel a little fresh out of clover.

But not this week. This week I am feeling pretty lucky, and very blessed.

Kase was able to start his internship this week. He was laid off last October and has been fulltime student-ing since. But this week he's back to work, and he loves it. Plus he graduates in 3 weeks! We are excited.

This weekend is looking pretty lucky too. My parents and sister are coming for a visit. And there are some fun baby showers involved! (I wish my brother and his wife could come visit. Hint hint if you happen to ever read this.)

Plus the weather has been awesome.

AND I've also decided our baby is very lucky. In the last 2 weeks, while walking to work I have randomly came across 4 four-leaf clovers. How lucky is that? It's all the baby.

So...

Look out world, here we come!

Baby Update

2010-04-13T23:32:00.000-04:00

Last Thursday we went to the doctor for another ultrasound to check on baby's kidneys. The good news is that one kidney looks perfect. The other kidney is still swollen with fluid, but they were able to tell that it is definitely a blockage somewhere. So, we should be able to deliver at Parkwest instead of UT. She should be fine. She will probably have to have surgery a few weeks after she is born to clear out the blockage, but apparently it is a very common surgery.

We are relieved and feel very blessed. I was worried we would have to deliver at UT and they would have to take her away immediately to perform emergency surgery and I would have to go home without her. But it looks like things will be OK. But we will take whatever happens and do what needs to be done. We just want to meet our baby girl.

Other happennings at the doctor's appointment:

Baby:
- Baby weights 3.8 lbs. Still big for her age.
- She is stubborn and would not move around as needed.
- She looks strong and everything else looked good.

Me:
- I drank the sugary orange drink for my sugar test and it was not bad at all.
- I bruise like a peach. Thank you blood-removal-nurse-lady.

Other people at doctor's office:
- While waiting in the waiting room there was another couple there who made us feel like we were in an episode of '16 and Pregnant'. I giggled a lot because of this.

So we had a good doctor's visit. We love our little baby and her big feet.

What's in a Name?

2010-04-07T15:59:00.002-04:00

Attention all readers:

I am having a hard time committing to a name for our little girl. I know we still have time, but we would like your vote. That doesn't mean we will necessarily pick whatever name wins the vote. But... it might help me commit.

So vote away!

If you have a better name idea, leave me a comment. You can do it anonymously if you want.