Easter Pictures

So I took Eliza to the UT Arboretum for a little self-done photo shoot. I really wanted to get her pictures made, but we didn't have the money right now. Plus she is not a very cooperative photo taker.

When I put her in her Easter dress, she cried. She said "I don't like it!" and tried to pull it off. She has never acted like that before. I think she didn't like it because it was poofy. I felt kind of bad, but I convinced her that she looked pretty. She agreed to wear it to the park.

We brought her basket and some easter eggs. She really loved finding the eggs that we hid. It was pretty fun. I didn't get a lot of good shots because she NEVER smiles for the camera, NEVER stops moving, and ALWAYS had a very intense look on her face. We all had fun though!

Checking out the lily pad pond.

Daddy Daughter.

Going on an egg hunt.

Checking out the park.

Fake smiling. I couldn't get her to smile, so I asked her to show me her teeth.

After our photo shoot, I put her in a more Eliza-approved dress. She wanted to find more Easter eggs. She cracked me up beause she would get right up on an egg, bend over, and stare at it.

We had a realy nice time.

Just a reminder

"Oh cleaning and scrubbing will wait till tomorrow,

but children grow up, as I've learned with my sorrow.

So quiet down, cobwebs. Dust, go to sleep.

I'm rocking my baby.

Babies don't keep."

--- Ruth Hulbert Hamilton

I read this today and loved it. Time seems to be flying by and my baby keeps getting bigger and bigger. She is so sweet and I want to treasure every moment with her.

So if you come to my house and it is kind of messy. Sorry. I've been doing more important things like reading stories, playing with bubbles, giving baths, and loving on my little bug.

She counted to 10 all by herself last week. I didn't know she could do that!

She says "One more time mommy, one more time." When she doesn't want to stop doing something.

She loves to have "Dance parties" in her room.

She has gotten several pairs of new summery shoes lately. When Kase picked her up yesterday, she put her foot up and said " I like my new shoes daddy."

She amazes us every day.

There is nothing else I would rather be doing.

Hello 2012

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!

A Very Belated Christmas Post

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!

Yaba daba dooooo

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!

Update: Uh Oh Spaghetti-Oh

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

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!

Goodbye Summer Hello Staycation

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

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

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. :)

Eliza's One Year Photo Shoot

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