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!!!

Much Updating!! - so its VERY long!!

I can't believe its been over a month since my last blog. I have so many pictures of Elizabeth to share. She is almost 7 months old. Gosh how time flies!! She is sitting up like an old pro. She is very close to getting on her knees. She'll lean over so far going after something and then realize that she's not on her butt anymore and go back to a sitting position. She has started to pull herself up. We have to watch her now when we have the rail down to her crib. She started an actual daycare about 3 weeks ago. She seems to be doing well with it. Her first day was definitely harder for me then it was for her! I think there is only 1 or 2 other little girls there so she is completely doted upon! We recently went to Alabama to visit my family and got some really great shots at Portrait Innovations. It was my niece's 1st birthday. I can't believe she is a year old. The only way you can tell that these 2 are related is by their nose. They are identical. Definitely a Curry nose! Elizabeth just did so well for all her pictures. It was soooo hard narrowing them down to just 5 poses!!!

In other news, today is my 31st birthday and I got a scrapbooker's dream gift......A Cricut!! I've only had a chance to play with it for just a little bit. But here's a picture of the beautiful thing! :) The other great thing I got was a $50 gift card to Hobby Lobby and I bought this great paper pack from Die Cut With a View. I used some of the paper to make these 2 pages. It's going to be a fun paper pack and I can't wait to use more of it! These are the only 2 pages I've gotten done in the past month. Man, I just don't always have the energy to do much of anything after Elizabeth goes to bed at night. There are times where it just doesn't feel like there are enough hours in the day.

Back to our trip to Alabama. I've got some more pictures of I want to share. Elizabeth loves the water. My folks have a pool so we went swimming Friday and Saturday (and I went swimming early Sunday morning by myself and it was COLD!) Anyway, here are some pics of us in the pool. My girlfriend from high school, Leah, and her daughter, Natalie (who's about 6 weeks older than Elizabeth) came over to go swimming. My sister, Kaci, and her daughter, Emma, were there as well. I also got some really cute pictures of Natalie and Elizabeth playing together. They were so cute. I don't think they really knew what to make of each other.

By the way, Natalie is not hitting Elizabeth in the back of her head. Just looks like it!

And FINALLY, it was my niece's 1st birthday! She was just a little princess! Here are some pics of the birthday party. Also, she was in a Little Miss Alabama beauty pageant (I think that was the name of it). Anyway, she won three awards - People Choice, Best Sports Wear and Best Personality. She was such a darling! It was an interesting experience being there. Not really my kind of thing. Actually, we kind of laughed at some of the older girls and the prancing they did. It was hard not to.

Well, I guess I'm done!! I guess it was more pictures than anything else. And actually, I probably have about a gazillion more pictures that I'll add at another time. I've been keeping up with the rest of you though!

One last thing - update on Sonya who I requested a prayer request on. She past away about a month ago. She was in a coma for 2 weeks and then finally lost the fight. Although she is gone, her family still needs your prayers to see them through holidays, birthdays, anniversaries and just the everyday things.

Hello all!

Well, it's been awhile since I've posted anything. We are doing good. Elizabeth is just as cute and sweet as she could be. I took some great pictures of her in this great little outfit Gramma got for her. I'm not big on head bands for babies but I love hats! I think she looks so darned cute! She absolutely loves to chew on material - her clothes or blankets or wash cloths. It must feel good on her gums. On some of her pictures you can see the slobber stains on her dress. She is quite the slobberer (is that a word?). She likes to blow raspberries and get slobber all over her chin, her hands and her feet!

One thing I've discovered about Elizabeth is that she is one restless sleeper. She gets herself about half way down the crib and sometimes gets herself turned sideways. When we first lay her down and she's tired, she kind of twist her body around to the side and tilts her head up . Hard to describe but its cute as can be - Everything she does is cute!! :)

I've been able to do a couple of scrapbook pages. On Mother's Day, Monica and I went scrapbooking - we considered it Mother's Day off! Actually, we both had great Mother's Days with our family and then we ditched them in the afternoon. :) Here's what I got done. I skipped ahead in her album and worked a little bit more on our trip to Alabama in February. Elizabeth & Emma had the same outfit in different colors and they look so cute together. I skipped ahead in her album and worked a little bit more on our trip to Alabama in February. Elizabeth and Emma are dressed in the same outfit in different colors and they were sooo cute.

We went to Portrait Innovations and had family pictures taken. The stickers are Bo Bunny cardstock stickers. I got very lucky finding paper that matched. I really like this layout.

On to other topics - I said goodbye to one of my favorite TV shows last week. Gilmore Girls came to an end after an endearing 8 years. I'll miss you Loreli and Rory! I have to say Congratulations to Jaslene for winning America's Next Top Model. Good Job! And tonight, I will watch the season finale of Hero's. I guess I will have nothing to watch. I'll just keep up on my Netflix watching.

Take care everyone!! Sorry for the long delay in my blogging!

Prayer Request

Sonya Grimm is 32 years old, with a 5 month old daughter, a 6 year old son and an 11 year old step daughter and she is dying of cervical cancer. When she was about 4 months into her pregnancy, she was diagnosed. Sonya had to deliver her daughter early and although she was about 2 months premature, she is doing great. At this point, the doctors are only giving Sonya about 2 months to live. I don't know Sonya well at all. My husband and her husband went to High School together so I've talked with her on occasion. It's probably been 2 years since I've even seen her, but this has really hit hard for me. I have no idea what she is going through or what she is thinking of or how much pain she is in or how she is getting through each day. I just know that I look at my little girl and I can't imagine not being a part of her life. Hearing about Sonya has really put things in perspective for me. It's important to cherish everything, the little things, the big things, the insignificant things. We never know how long our time on earth is. I can't imagine never seeing Elizabeth smile or hearing her laugh or watching her crawl for the first time or walking for the first time and so much more. I am so sad for Sonya and her family.

Please keep Sonya and her family in your prayers and this will be so hard on them to loose their mom and wife. Pray that Jeremy has the strength to raise 3 kids on his own and to have the strength to be everything he needs to be for his kids.

Ladies, be sure you have your yearly paps and be sure that if something doesn't "seem right", then please get checked out. I got this information off www.cancer.org. This is the direct link.

• About 3,670 women will die from cervical cancer in the United States during 2007. Cervical cancer was once one of the most common causes of cancer death for American women. Between 1955 and 1992, the number of cervical cancer deaths in the United States dropped by 74%. The main reason for this change is the increased use of the Pap test. This screening procedure can find changes in the cervix before cancer develops. It can also find early cancer in its most curable stage. The death rate from cervical cancer continues to decline by nearly 4% a year. Half of women diagnosed with this cancer are between the ages of 35 and 55.

As I said, please get your yearly paps and make sure all the beautiful women you know do the same.

A Morning Home with My Girl

My baby sitter's kid is sick again so I am at home with Elizabeth this morning. I'm taking the opportunity to finally post on my blog and upload to our picture website. Hubby and I are splitting our day in half since I've got month end I'm working on, plus I have a girl on vacation that I'm covering so I can't take a whole day off. We're also doing this tomorrow. I don't mind at all though. I wish I could take the whole day off with her! We're watching Baby Einstein right now. She just gets such a huge kick out of it. We have 2 of them, but she definitely prefers one over the other (I can't remember the names of either one!). I guess it bored her b/c she just fell asleep! Unfortunately I'm going to have to wake her up soon. We're going to meet at my work to "swap". It gives me the opportunity to show her off to my co-workers and that way Brian can work a little bit later and I can be at work a little bit earlier rather than waiting for him to drive all the way home before I can leave again. Oh to be a stay at home mom!!

We had a really great visit with Gramma & Papaw. They got to babysit for half a day Wed. and then all day Thursday and Friday. I know they all enjoyed each other. I got some great pictures of all of them making each other laugh. While they were here we went to the River Market which is a cross between a Farmer's Market and a Flea Market. It was such a beautiful day. Up until then it was rainy and a little chilly. We took them to eat at my friend's parents Mexican Restaurant - Lobitos (means Little Wolf). They also babysat Friday night and Brian and I had a "date night". We saw "Wild Hogs" which was pretty funny. Mom and I went shopping, she got Elizabeth some of THE CUTEST clothes and I got some clothes for me as well. Still haven't lost all my baby fat yet so I don't have a lot of clothes I can wear to work and I refuse to buy a whole new wardrobe!! Anyway, we sure do miss Gramma and Papaw but we'll be seeing them again in a month and a half. Elizabeth's cousin will be turning 1!

While Gramma and Papaw were here, Elizabeth turned 5 months. I went picture happy in a big way and changed her into 3 different outfits. I don't normally do that b/c she doesn't always put up with it, but Gramma was able to keep her happy and smiling. Here are some of those. She still loves her feet. She can now get them to her mouth and she'll suck on her toes!! It's funny how a baby sucking on their toes is cute! At what age does it stop being cute?? :)

Onto a little scrapbooking - This is my most recent layout...

The first page is a Pencil Line sketch. I think its #72. I used #46 as inspiration for page 2. For those of you who scrapbook, its worth checking out. As you can probably tell, I'm a double layout kind of gal. The "Waiting for You" layout is a single b/c that's my opening page of Elizabeth's scrabpook. The closest I've come to not having a double layout is the Snow Angel and Christmas Outfits, but they blend together (just need to get them both completed). I'm notorious for not completing layouts!! Especially when it comes to the journaling. I'm used to not journal b/c of my handwriting and I would plan on typing on then printing, but that never happens. I've gotten over that and just write now. Sometimes though, a layout doesn't really need it, like the one here, I like those!

Anyone going to see "Spiderman 3" this weekend? We're working out an arrangement with our friends so that we can see it. I still love going to the movies. That's about the only thing I miss, Brian and I can't go very often together and I've got that free movie pass card. Most of the time, I go with my friend Monica but we mainly see "chick flicks" and then Brian will go with Eric. We've made it to a few together, but there really hasn't been anything that I'm just dying to see until this weekend.

I'm going to put in a plug for Netflix. We love Netflix. We have the 3 movie deal. I think we pay about $18 a month. We get more TV shows then movies. We watched all of Alias, about 3-1/2 seasons of Star Trek: The Next Generation and I'm starting to watch Lost. There's a hub here so the turn around time is about 2 days including the day we mailed it. There have to be about a million movies to choose from. If you like watching movies but can't always make it to Blockbuster I would recommend looking into it. The turn around time could be longer for places that don't have a hub (warehouse) in your city. It'll let you create a list - we have about 50 on ours and it just goes down the list. We also split ours into 2 users. Brian gets 2 and I get 1. That way we each have our own list. There's my plug for the day.

Well, I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend! Take care all!