Elizabeth is 1

And has been for a few weeks! :) This is mostly going to be pictures.

he just amazes me everyday and what she can understand. She has two teddy bears that I can say, where's your Teddy? and she'll go grab them both and just hug on them and then pass them to me to hug. She's so sweet. I know everyone is wanting to know where the new pictures are. I've been a horrible mom and just haven't taken as many as I used to. I do have some from her birthday though (thanks to Uncle Bruce).

She had a lot of fun at her birthday party and as you can tell had fun with the cake. She wasn't too interested in the presents she got initially. The whole opening presents and all wasn't a big deal for her. However she loves playing with them now. My folks got her a kitchen and Brian's parents got her a Leap Frog ride toy and those are her two favorite. She got so much for her birthday, she doesn't really need anything for Christmas! My kid definitely dresses better than I do! :)

Since I'm so far behind on pictures and everything, here are some Halloween pics.

Brian and I were lucky enough to go see Garth Brooks. He was AWESOME. He put on 9 concerts in a row at our newly built Sprint Center. He puts on a great show. He played nothing but old stuff. Actually, he did have one new song. You can see how far away we were. I'm pretty sure it was Garth on stage, but if you've seen "Pure Country" you know it could have been anybody!! :) Trisha was really great too!

I'll try to do better in the future but I can't guarantee anything!

Have a Merry Christmas!!

It's Been A While

I think I need to start all my blogs with "it's been awhile". I just can't seem to keep up on this thing! I don't have any pictures to add at the moment, but I thought I'd give an update on Elizabeth. She is starting to eat "grown up" food. The daycare is really helping us move this along. Today she had pancakes for breakfast and grilled cheese for lunch (she's also getting her veggies and fruit). At dinner, we still give her baby food and then she feeds herself peas and corn. She LOVES peas! It seems like anyday she's going to walk, of course, I think I've been saying that for months! However, we did have a major break through this past Sunday. She walked about 4-5 steps from the coffee table to me. Usually, we see about a step or 2 and then she realizes what she's doing and sits down real quick so she can spiderman crawl. She has learned how to crawl up and down stairs thanks to daddy. I'm not sure that I really like it, but we do have stairs in our house and the sooner she figures them out the better. She's not so good going down as she is going up. I can tell it scares her a little bit b/c every now and then, she does this little laugh. Can you believe she's almost a year old. She'll be 11 months this weekend. I just can't beleive how time has flown by. She is still such a good natured baby, but I think she's going to have a temper on her. If she tries to squeeze by something and gets sort of stuck or if she's pushing a chair and it can't go any further, she'll yell in frustration. I'm trying to work on that. Brian swears that she said the word diaper over the weekend. I'm like great, she can say da da and diaper but not ma ma. I am really low on the totem pole! :) Actually, I know in my heart that when she says da da, she's really saying ma ma! :)

Our friends Barrett and Karen just had their 2nd child last Tuesday. Abigail Jean (I think I spelled that right). She is such a cutie. I'll admit, even though Elizabeth isn't a year old yet, I totally forgot what the diaper of a new born consisted of! I helped Barrett change her diaper @ the hospital and it was like I had never changed a diaper before. There is such a huge difference in handling your own new born vs. someone else's. And of course she peed while I was changing her and we had to get her a new shirt. Yeah, that was the only diaper I changed that night!

The one thing I look forward most to every year (scrapbooking wise) happened this past weekend. The Creating Keepsakes Scrapbook Convention of Kansas City, Missouri. Even though it's local, Monica and I got a hotel room for 2 nights and had a weekend away. We helped Embellish It set up their booth on Thursday and got paid for it (of course, we went right back there the next day and spent all our money there). They are an online store that carries all of the Basic Grey & Bazzil Line. I think they were the only ones at the convetion who had that. I love that line. I took a class hosted by them, too. We made a Christmas Chipboard album from the Figgy Pudding line. It was great! I also took a Canvas class by Quick Quotes. I can't tell too much about that since it will be a Christmas present. I also took another class by them and made a 2 page layout "All about Girls". I loved all my classes this year. We didn't have any "celebrity sightings" this year. Last year, we met Lisa Bearnson - founding editor of Creating Keepsakes. She is on QVC a couple of times a year. Anyway, we had a great time, but honestly, didn't get much scrapbooking done at all. I think I got 3 pages done the whole time. Unfortunately, I'm a slow scrapper. I will work on a layout for 2 hours just b/c I want to make sure everything is positioned just right. But then, I can turn around & get one done in 10 minutes. I printed out a bunch of pictures from our FABULOUS vacation in case I felt inspired to work on that and give Elizabeth's album a break, but that didn't happen. I did find a Basic Grey paper pack that will work with India pretty well. I got it 1/2 off too, which makes it all the better. I did really good at keeping to my budget. I didn't use my credit card a single time - which for me is a big deal!! We had a blast and Oct. 2008 won't get here quick enough!

I think Brian got a taste of what it was like for me when he was gone for 3 weeks and it was just Elizabeth and me. He was ready for me to get home, but that was partly b/c he's working on our fire place. We are tiling it - it was covered in this yellowish rock. Once I get time, I'll add some pictures to go along with the blog.

That about sums up everything going on lately. It's getting past my bedtime and I need to get some sleep! I'm trying to catch up from my lack of sleep this weekend!
Hope everyone is doing well and sorry it takes so long for me to post. I'm sure most have quit checking this considering it takes almost 2 months to get something new on here. I need to get some new pictures of Elizabeth too. I've really slacked on that.

She's 9 months!

It seems like Elizabeth is just growing leaps and bounds. She turned 9 months just a few weeks ago and of course, I had to get some pictures taken! It's not enough that I take a bizzillion at home. I went to Portrait Innovations and got some of the greatest shots! I had every intention of buying just their $9.99 deal, but when they did the diaper shots (tub and boa) how could I not just buy them up?

I was hoping to get some pictures that I have taken added, but the computer is not reading the USB thing. Brian has the laptop with him and I KNOW how to add pictures on that, but I don't like our other computer. Anyway, I got a great shot of her standing on her own and one of her sleeping still holding onto her bottle. It feels like any day now she's going to be walking on her own! I'm not ready for that yet! We're still adjusting to her spiderman crawl and baby proofing the house. Which by the way, I have given up on keeping the living room tidy. It seems a "Mission Impossible". She pulls out all the DVD's - thankfully she doesn't know how to open the cases yet. Plus, she thinks when I say "NO" that I'm being a comedian. That girl just laughs at me when she is supposed to be getting into trouble. Smacking her hand just makes her laugh harder. She's not even a year old and I've got attitude already!! :) It's mainly keeping her out of the trash in the kitchen and away from the TV/VCR/DVD player. We have an open floor plan so we can't gate out the kitchen. We've got locks on some of the cabinet doors (still haven't figured out why Brian didn't do them all). I will say, plastic wear is a cheap toy!

Her and I have done well on our own these last couple of weeks. We just have to finish this week out and then I join Brian in India / Zurich / Rome for a week while Elizabeth gets to be spoiled rotten by my parents for that week. I know Brian can't wait to get back home and see his little girl. She loves to listen to him on the phone. She gets excited when she hears his voice! I know its been hard on him to be gone from her this long. I'm looking forward to the trip, but I'm not looking forward to being away from my angel for a week. Especially since it's just been her and I for 3 weeks. I'm sure we'll all be fine. I know Gramma & Papaw are really looking forward to the visit. He's been to the Taj Mahal (could you tell by the picture) and few other places. We're going to the Taj Mahal when I get there. I'm so EXCITED! Rome is what I'm looking forward to the most, while Brian's pretty excited about Zurich. I am going to take so many pictures, it will drive Brian crazy. This is a once in a life time opportunity! Brian's work is paying for my ticket there. I do have a slight hiccup. India requires a Tourist VISA. I have sent everything off (including passport & birth certificate) and I haven't gotten it back yet. I'm staying positive that I will get it by Thursday. It is showing that the VISA is still being approved. Brian got his back in 4 days and it's been about 3 weeks for me so far. Like I said, I'm staying positive. I've started to pack my bag - actually, I'm pretty much done.

Well, I think that catches me up. I can't believe I updated in less than a month! I'll have so much to write about when we get back from our trip. Since we'll have our lap top, I'm hoping I might even be able to blog and download pics while we're on the trip.

Take care everyone and pray for us all a safe journey!

Past due Update!

I can't believe it's been well over a month since my last blog. I really didn't mean to go that long. I bet you guys have quit checking it out! Well, Elizabeth is no longer crawling w/ one knee and one foot, it is now no knees and both feet. It's like spiderman crawling across a building. And man can she move. She gets to going so fast she falls down sometimes. I tried really hard to get some good pictures of her "spiderman" crawl, but this is the best I got..Not the best angle, but you get the idea.

I've got a few pictures of her taking a bath too. She loves the water. She loves getting a shower. Usually Brian takes a shower with her and I give her a bath. She loves to suck on the wash cloths. Actually, at this stage, she loves to suck on anything! :) Pretty much anything and everything goes in that mouth of her!

Now that she's moving so much, she's torturing the cats, at least they think so. She loves to grab the cats and climb on the cats and eat their tails. They have a pillow in the floor and it BELONGS to the cat. He will meow and swat (no front claws) at her but refuse to budge. I tell him if just moves away, she'll leave him alone, but he doesn't listen. The black cat is Spaz and the orange cat is Kelly. Spaz is the one that refuses to leave his pillow where as Kelly will run away and soon as he senses her presence!

I can't believe she is about to be 9 months old! Wow, time sure does fly by! She has her 9 mo. check up on the 31st. I'll be sure to let everyone know her measurements. I think she's got a big old noggin so I'm curious where she falls in the percentile for head size. Here are just some misc. pictures of her. The first pic is her eating a "biter biscuit". Gees, those things are SUPER messy! The 2nd one is just her playing in a box. And the 3rd, I tried to get 8 month pictures, but now that she's mobile, it's really hard to get her to sit still long enough for a picture.

The last picture of Elizabeth is her first feeding in her brand new high chair. Yes, we waited until she was like 6 months old to get a high chair, but we finally did. Love it too! Makes feeding time so much easier - imagine that!

Finally...I've gotten some scrapbooking done. It's been about 2 weeks since I've done anything, but before that, I got quite a few done, so here you go...I did a couple of one page layouts which is not like me at all. I'm a 2 page layout kind of gal, but I was really struggling when I only had 2 or 3 pictures that went together. I just threw what I normally out of the window and got some great layouts done. This one, she's just laughing and smiling. The vellum says "Simply Beautiful" & I wrote it all around the coral on the green paper. The 2nd layout, she's only a few days old and she found her thumb.

These are of Brian & at Christmas - Elizabeth slept most of the day....

The 3rd set are just misc. Christmas pictures.

I got some great shots of Elizabeth playing with her "Binky".

The one on the left is just her sleeping in her swing. She was just so darned precious. "Cherish" is the word stamped. The other is when she was around 5 months (I need to go back and date these on the scrapbook pages).

The last set is just her playing with her "play arch" and spitting at 6 months.

I hope the formatting stays okay. I think it will show up on the blog one way, but it will be completely different when I actually post it.

Well, as usual, I have a long blog b/c I don't keep up on it. I hope all is doing well. I can't promise that I'll keep on it any better, but I'll try!

Crawling update

Ways to crawl according to Elizabeth....

-1. Start enjoying being on your stomach. This is a key to start the whole crawling process. Once you are comfortable with this you can move on to......
-2. The Military crawl. Use your arms to pull yourself forward. This is great for beginning crawlers. I wish I had pictures of her demonstrating this particular crawl, but unfortunately I don't. Just pictures Marines crawling under ropes through mud. Take away the mud and ropes and you've got Elizabeth's Military crawl!! :)

-3. After you master the military crawl, the next move is the Spider crawl. Be on one knee, bring your other foot around, then crawl on one knee and one foot. The picture at the top demonstrates how this is to be done. It's an interesting way to get around, but it seems to get her where she wants to go.

It's been so much fun watching her move this past month. Everything seems to be happening so fast. One minute she hates being on her stomach and the next, she's rolling from her back to stomach, getting up on her knees and moving around. I can not believe she will be 8 months old this month! I can't get over how quickly time seems to be going by. I'm trying to soak it all in and remember every milestone!

After crawling, what comes next except pulling yourself up...This is something Elizabeth has just conquered in the last couple of days. She loves the coffee table in the living room. Actually, she pretty much likes anything that she can pull herself up on. She's had a few bumps with all this pulling up and moving around. I think her favorite thing to do is pull herself up. She likes to stand. I swear, it feels like any minute she's going to start trying to walk.

I've had a chance to do a little bit of scrapbooking. I finally got to use my Cricut, which I absolutely love!! I used to help on my Valentine's Day layout along with some stamping. If you've never used Versa Mark, you need to give it a try. I stamped the word LOVE in 4 different fonts with the versa mark and it really made a great back ground. Just a note with the Cricut, When I cut out the smaller LOVE, I kept the negative space and used it. It was an after thought, but I really liked how it came out.

In addition to Valentine's I got some of the Christmas pictures done. I like the big present I did that matches the presents on the background of the paper. I made it as one present and then when I was done, I cut it in half. Every now and then, I get inspired. It pretty much seems like I can get 2 layouts done and then my creativity leaves me!

We had a pretty low key 4th of July. Just a couple of friends came over for a bbq and then we went to Leawood, KS for fireworks. We just hung out in the parking lot though and did not go to the actual park where all the activity was. We brought chairs and sparklers and brownies and hung out for 2 hours waiting for the fireworks to start up. Elizabeth really enjoyed them. She just smiled and watched. It was so cute. Here are some of the pictures I took that night.

Well, that does it for tonight. As usual, my blog is long b/c I can't ever seem to keep up on it!!!