Scrapbook weekend

My friend, Monica, and I had a scrapbook weekend!! Creating Keepsakes came to town this past weekend along with some great vendors. We volunteered to help with a crop on Thursday so we received vouchers which we were able to use to purchase tickets for the Saturday night crop. Plus we took one class each. I can't say much about my class b/c they will become Christmas presents for 2 lucky people! We got some good deals, did some scrapbooking, spent some money and all in all had a GREAT time.

Elizabeth is growing like a weed! She's saying more words now - she knows a lot of her body parts (chin, eyes, nose mouth, knee, elbow, etc.). Last night I was calling myself "silly momma" and she repeated that. So, I guess we should watch what we say around her! :) She LOVES Winnie the Pooh right now. She carries around this over sized Pooh and brings us the Winnie DVD to put in. She sleeps with 2 Winnie the Poohs at night! I guess our big news is that she is binky (pacifer) free. She had some sores in her mouth about a week or so ago and we didn't give her the binky b/c we though

it would just make the sores worse, so, one night led to another and here we are. How cute is this little girl?!?! She still has a pretty good attitude, but she's spoiled.

I never did tell of my Star Trek experience. Kim and I had a great time. We got autographs from a lot of Star Trek stars - I got Nichelle Nichols, Leondard Nimoy, Walter Koenig & George Takei - all from the Original Star Trek series. Then I got Brent Spiner and Marina Sirtis from The Next Generation. Kim got autographs from the Voyager cast as the actors from the Original series. She got 2 more of those than I did since I didn't really know who they were but she did. One of the chicks from Voyager (Jennifer Lein) was a little on the odd side. She never looked up and spoke to people and when she did to Kim (to verify what color marker we wanted her to sign the picture) it was like she was drugged up. Not like she was a druggie, but I guess she is super uncomfortable with the whole meeting the fans thing so it's like they gave her something to get her through it. It was WEIRD!! Anyway, there were a lot of stars that we got to see on stage - Scot Bakula (I guess it was HUGE deal that he came, b/c that was only his 2nd one); Zachary Quinto - star of Heroes and will also play Spok in the new Star Trek movie coming out. Next year's convention should be pretty cool b/c the new movie comes out in May and the convention will follow in August. Anyway, we went to 2 parties - 1 at the Star Trek experience ride another in a ball room and Tim Russ (Tuvok from Voyager) has a band and they played. There were not as many FREAKS as I was expecting, there were definitely some there, many with costumes, but they were pretty nice. There was a vendor area and there were some odd booths there. The guy who played Jaws in some of the James Bond movies was there and he was HUGE. The guy who wore the Chewbacca costume was there as well and he's really really tall. There were 2 cast members from the original Battlestar Gallatica there. The Asian guy who was in Revenge of the Nerds was there - he had a Star Trek connection - he played some kid in an episode from the Original series. There were quite a few people there who had been in one or 2 episodes selling there pictues. It was interesting! We didn't do too much Vegas sight seeing. However, we had one of the most expensive buffets EVER! We went to the Rio which has the largest buffet in the world (or US or something like that). I had the most amount of food I ever had in my life. I was going to get my $25 worth! :) We tried to go up Paris but they had it closed. We did a little gambling. Didn't walk away with anything - I kind of lost some, but I never played with much anyway. I guess that sums up the trip very briefly! Here are just a few of the many 100's of pictures I took! It was very hard to pick pictures to add to the blog, especially since I took so many! There was a costume contest and there were some pretty amazing costumes! Not sure that I would spend that kind of money again - but William Shatner is scheduled to be there next year....

Not much else going on with us. We've had a couple of visits from family. My mom and dad came a few weeks ago and spent almost a week. Elizabeth got to spend a lot of time with "momma" and "papaw". She didn't know quite how to say Gramma and it came out as momma. My mom and I took her to the train restaurant. I wish I would have though to bring my camera. A train comes around and drops off your food at your table. She loved it. She became fascinated with trains when my parents took her to the zoo. Listening to her say "choo choo" is just too too cute! :) This past weekend, Brian's parents came to visit. We went to the lake for the day for a picnic and tried to fly a kite - wasn't windy enough.

I can't believe Elizabeth will be turning 2 in less than 2 months. On Thanksgiving Day! Man, I can't believe she's going to be 2 years old! WoW!

Well, no telling when I'll update this again...

Tomorrow - I go where no man has gone before...

Yes, tomorrow is the STAR TREK Convention. I leave for Las Vegas tomorrow morning! Yipee!! I am so looking forward to it and I am so hoping I'm not disappointed! I've music on MP3 player for the plane ride and I bought the 4th of the Twilight Saga - "Breaking Dawn". I can't believe I bought that book on Sunday and have completely controlled myself from reading even a single word. Saving it for the plane. I've spent a lot of time preparing clothes for this trip..why? Well, I don't want to look like I belong at a Star Trek Convention!! Ha! ha! Actually, I look back at my pics from India/Rome/Zurich and I looked like a bum with crazy hair!! So, even though that might make me blend in with the crowd in Vegas, not looking to do that! Anyway...I said I would put some pictures of my beautiful baby girl so here you go...

We got out her wading pool and she just had a blast with it. Sounds silly, but I actually gave her a "bath" in it. Just seemed silly to take her right from the wading pool into the bathtub so Brian brought out her soap.

Elizabeth got to enjoy her first Royals game! She did GREAT! But she had a TON of people to watch. She is a total people watcher. It was a good game and we actually won at the end. Can't remember who we were playing...

We got to meet Brian's brand new nephew - born July 18th - Logan Levi Yoder. Such a cutie! Elizabeth just loved him. She was so excited to see "baby". His bassinet was sitting in the living room and she kept reaching up to it to look inside. It was so cute. Of course, she kept wanting to poke him the eye...but, it was all done with love!

While in Omaha, we went to the zoo. They have a pretty awesome zoo! There is a desert dome, an aquarium, a nocturnal area, a butterfly farm, and on and on. There were parts Elizabeth liked and parts that she could have cared less about! She didn't last very many hours before conking out on daddy's shoulder.

Well, that's about all I have for right now. I know I'll have ton to add after the STAR TREK Convention - be prepared!!

LIVE LONG AND PROSPER!!

8 days to Vegas

Well, I am completely obsessed with 2 things right now...First, preparing for my trip to Vegas for the geek fest of all time - the Star Trek Convention. I keep hoping that Patrick Stewart, Jonathan Frakes and William Shatner (can you name the characters these actors played??) will get signed up to come to the convention - there are after all, 8 more days for Creation to make it happen! I check their website daily - at least a couple times a day to see if there have been changes. I'm hoping this lives up to my expectations and that I'm not disappointed. My sister, Kim, and I have a 5 fabulous days of all things Star Trek to look forward to. We purchased the "Captain Chair" package with gets us into 2, that's right 2, parties. We will get to hang out with Star Trek celebs - but we can't take pictures. Do you know how wrong that is for a scrapbooker?! I think I can take pictures during the panel "discussions" so it won't be a total loss. We'll be able to ride the Star Trek Experience which Brian and I went to about 8 years ago and they've added a 2nd ride since then. FYI - they are closing down the Star Trek experience at the end of August I think so I'm glad to get to go one last time.

Okay, now my second obsession - The Twilight Saga by Stephanie Meyer. I started this series about 2 weeks. There are 3 books currently out - Twilight, New Moon and Eclipse. The 4th one comes out on Saturday. I'm going to hold myself back from buying it right away so I can read it on the plane to Vegas (won't happen if I buy it Saturday b/c I'll read it before then). Anyway, I read the series in about a week and then started over! CRAZY, I know! Can't really say why I love it so much - it's about a vampires and werewolves and teenagers - not my usual type of book!! But there is romance. The main character is a human who has fallen in love with a Vampire that doesn't suck the blood of humans but animals. Wow, I'm not making it sound very good - but it is!! It really is!! If I was a suavvy internet guru, I could find a link to the first chapter of Twilight so you read for yourself how good it is, but I'm not that person and if I can't find it in 20 minutes, I give up! They are making the first book into a movie which comes out on December 12th. Okay, just now saw a trailer for the movie and so far, hate it! If a book is a #1 best seller, why do they change stuff?? AND the guy they have playing Edward (which is the actor who plays Cedric Diggory from the Harry Potter movie Goblet of Fire) is not very good looking and Edward in the book is described as beautiful and could be a model. So, where as before I was totally looking forward to the movie, now...not so much! Maybe if my obsession with the book wears off by December then I'll be more inclined to enjoy the movie - we'll see!

Coming soon: Obsession for the scrapbook convention which is in October - I have too much other stuff to occupy my mind (and my money) right now so sometime in September I will agonizing over what classes I should have signed up for but didn't and now they're not available anymore and should "volunteer" to help a vendor get set up and get paid $10 cash an hour (which I can then spend at the convention) or do I help Creating Keepsakes the sponsors of the convention and get vouchers that can be used at their booth...hmmm, not obsessed yet, but on the verge!!

Before I sign off - I saw "The Dark Knight" and it was AWESOME!! I'm one of those gals who LOVES a good action flick. Of course, having Christen Bale (don't think I spelled his name right) in it doesn't hurt at all. Ever seen "Newsies" (Disney musical which stars him - he can sing!)? Go and rent it if you haven't yet! Heath Ledger at the Joker was really great. I can see why they are talking Oscar for the part. I do wander if "they" would be talking Oscar if he was still alive. It's not the type of movie to ever have Oscar tied to it. Guess we'll never know, but it was one great performance! Tried to see "Mama Mia" but it was sold out and on a Monday night if you can believe that?! I thought I had seen more movies, but I guess not! There are a lot out there that I want to - X-Files: I want to Believe (and I do want to believe that it will be a good movie!); Step Brothers; Get Smart; and the $2 theater has Baby Mama which just looked funny!

Well, I don't have pictures to add at the moment which feels weird so that means I'll have to come back to my blog this week and get some added! Elizabeth's hair seems to be getting so long so I'll have to make sure I have some long hair shots.

Until I blog again....
(thank goodness for spell check - everytime I spelled obsession and beleive, I spelled them wrong!) Probably just spelled them wrong now, but I'm not going to do spell check! So ha!

Okay - found a website in regards to Twilight - http://www.stepheniemeyer.com/twilightseries.html I didn't notice at first but some of the books have the first chapter available to read or at least blurps.

Down by the Lake

Well, surprise everyone, I'm doing two entries in one week!!

We went to the dock to feed fish, ducks, geese and birds this evening. Elizabeth just loved watching the birds trying to fly in and steal the bread from the fish and ducks. They didn't have much luck so we took pity on them and threw some specifically at them. There were a ton of fish and ducks to feed, except Elizabeth kept eating the bread herself. She had a good system though, feed a piece to them, then eat a piece herself.

We went bowling about a week or so ago. We let Elizabeth walk up to help roll the bowling ball. She actually isn't bad! I got a spare when she "helped" me. But, I did have an embarrassing episode. She started to run away from me down the lane so I took 2 steps after her and bit the dust. I slipped in a big way. I had no idea the lanes were so waxed!! :) Everyone in the whole place saw me do it! Thankfully, no pictures of that!

I did some scrapbooking last night. I don't scrapbook as often I'd like. Usually by the time Elizabeth goes to bed, I pooped and just veg out on the couch.

I'll end for now and save some more photos for another entry!

Well, I've been a big looser about updating my blog (at least my brother-in-law thinks so!). So, be prepared for sensory overload as I've got a lot to add!

No big news to inform anyone of. I went for a visit to Alabama with Elizabeth while Brian stayed home to work on the house. He built in a shelving unit around our fireplace. The bottom half is for all of Elizabeth's toys - we needed to get them off of the floor. He's going to put on doors to hide it eventually. Also, maybe this year, we're going to put a flat screen TV above the fireplace! Can't wait for that! Brian's 3 brothers came from Omaha to help Brian replace our roof. They did a great job with that.

Elizabeth and I had a great visit with my family. Elizabeth really started jabbering much more with being around Emma so much. Can't understand a lot of it, but one day we will! Emma and Elizabeth are like night and day when it comes to their looks - they don't look like they are related at all! We took them to portrait innovations for pictures (kind of yearly tradition now) and it we did not get a lot of pictures of the 2 of them smiling. It was like they were being forced to be together (which I guess they sort of were!). I'll have to add those another time. We all went to a petting zoo and then went visiting relatives. Mom and Dad watched Elizabeth one night and I spent the night with Kim and Mark. Mom and Dad also watched her a couple of different times so I could go to the movies. Saw "The Incredible Hulk" with my bro-in-law Mark. I liked the movie, I wold recommend people to go see it. Saw "The Happening" with my dad. It was okay. Not super scary or anything and a little bit of a let down for me at the end. And finally saw "Indian Jones and the Crystal Skull with my sister Kim. I liked it for what it was. Elizabeth and I took it pretty easy and mom and dad's. Did only a little bit of shopping and just a little bit of visiting. I was glad that we made it for Emma's 2nd birthday.

I got to visit my friend Leah who had just had her daughter Abigail a couple of days before I got into town. She was so beautiful. Hungry and asleep for most of my visit. :)

We had a good 4th of July. Went to our friends Matt and Chez's house for food and fireworks. Elizabeth did great with the fireworks. They didn't scare her in the least, actually, she got a little bored. We went to a lake near their house for the big city fireworks. Elizabeth entertained herself for the most part with an empty bottle of bubbles. She would take the wand out and put it on the side of her head and then blow. It was so funny! We didn't do anything big for our 11 year anniversary (July 5th). We took Elizabeth to the zoo late morning. There was this bird sanctuary that you could walk through and feed the birds. They would land on your head or shoulders or your arms. They were not scared at all of us. Elizabeth was a little bit leery of the birds, but as long as they didn't get too close to her, she was fine. I had one take a nip out of my ear. Wasn't too pleasant.
I guess I sort of have big news. I cut my hair off today! I took this picture myself so I could quickly add it to the blog. It's short. I had about 10 inches cut off and I donated it to locks of love. I think it's been about 2 years or more since I had a hair cut! Look at the 2nd picture and see how long it was (picture taken at Monica's birthday dinner)!

Here some news to make me sound like a big geek!! My sister, Kim, and I are going to Las Vegas in August for 5 days. Why does this make me a geek? It's for the Star Trek convention. I am super excited about it. I keep checking out the website (http://www.creationent.com/cal/stlv.htm) to see if any new stars have been added. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that William Shatner, Patrick Stewart and Jonathan Frakes get signed on to come. I know, I'm a super geek. To make it even worse, my sister and I keep checking out the Firefly/Stargate/Battlestar Galatica convention going on in November, too. However, can't do 2 conventions in one year so it's just the Star Trek for 2008 (unless Kim and Mark win the lottery, then we'll go).

For those of you interested in my scrapbooking, here are some layouts I've done. I've got more, but these are my favorites. I'm pretty behind on Elizabeth's album. I quit working on it to start on our India/Zurich/Rome trip and now I've quit working on it, to start back on her album. One day I'll get the travel album done and can concentrate on her's.

Well, no promises on when I'll add another entry to my blog!

I've been bad about updating this!

Well, it's been forever since I've last updated this. Since the last blog, we've celebrated Christmas, gone to the Great Wolf Lodge (indoor water park), gone sledding and just hung out.



Elizabeth is now 15 months old! Wow how time flies. Here's the update on her. She is in the 25% for weight, 50% for head size and 25-50% for height. She still only has 4 teeth that have completely come in and the start of a 5th. Late bloomer as far as teeth goes. We've been dealing with colds and ear infections for about 2 months. I'll be glad when winter is done and over with here!! It has lasted for too long! Elizabeth isn't saying a whole lot. Everything and everybody is Da da (Brian, me, the cats and the dog). But you can ask her where the dog is and she go to the sliding glass door to find Storm. Same thing when you ask where the cats are. She knows the name but we're all still Dad da. Some of the cute things she does - she likes to "blow" her nose and throw away her tissue. She likes throwing away paper. She knows her jacket goes in the coat closet. When I say it's time to go night night, she walks to her bedroom. Actually, tonight she ran, like "please, let me go to bed"! We've introduced the potty chair to her, but she hasn't gone in it yet. We're not really pushing it, just letting her know about it. She does like to play with it.



Well, here are some pictures...(I've also added more to the picture website)

We went sledding last weekend - the snow didn't last long but it was fun. Brian and Storm would pull Elizabeth up the slope - it was interesting because Storm isn't one of those dogs that is considered smart! It didn't look like she was having fun, but she was! :) Here are some pictures of us at the Great Wolf Lodge. We went with Barrett, Karen, Mason & Abby. All the kids had a great time. Elizabeth just loved walking and walking and walking around. She got a bit independent and didn't want to hold our hands.

I've been doing some scrapbooking - I got Elizabeth's Birthday Scrapbook done (it was an 8X* Tinkerbell album). I've mainly been focusing on our India/Zurich/Rome trip. Maybe this weekend I'll get those layouts updated.

Well, it's getting past my bedtime. Hopefully, it won't be another 3 months before I update this again. I know there are some of you that still check the blog hoping that one day I'll update it!

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!!