Happy Birthday Eliza!!

I'm only going to hit the highlights of the week here:

Monday - Wednesday... lets just say they were busy and I'm REALLY glad that they're over!

Thursday was Thanksgiving! and it was fantastic! Ben smoked the turkey (starting at 5am) and it was fantastic! there were a total of 29 people at thanksgiving dinner and everyone thought the turkey was great! The 29 people consisted of the following families: The Waite's, Lane's, Lundmark's, Egan's, and of course us! We had dinner at the church and everyone loved just sitting and chatting! Eliza really enjoyd the food and all the action despite the lack of a nap!

Friday I got up and inteded to go shopping a little on my own and ended up going to Ft. Collins and shopping with my family all morning while Ben stayed home with Eliza (they were both glad they didn't come) after shopping with my family until 1:00ish I came home and showered before going out again with Ben to do a little shopping. And thanks to our little shopping trip we have almost finnished our Christmas shopping (at least for each other that is).

TODAY: It's not really Eliza's birthday until tomorrow but it worked better for everyone to celebrate today instead! I would claim that we didn't do anything big but that would be a lie because just having family here is big! So Eliza made out like a bandit with all of her grandparents around here! these are the pictures of the stuff:

Cake written on by Ben:

Eliza's First Purse: made by aunt Hailey! THANK YOU!!!!
See all my pretty Bow's! and She got some silverwear that she can actually use because it's not as heavy as her arm!!! THaNkS Grandma & Grandpa Waite
Bean bag chair from Grandma & Grandpa Merritt! (she's still a little scared of it, but I give it 24 hrs before she's totally in love!)

Tutu skirt was one of many cloths idems she got from both Grandma's! (I'm so lucky that she has shuch great grandparents who get her such cute cloths!)

Her favorite gift from Mommy and Daddy was the Jungle playset that makes all kinds of noises! and lights up and it's just awesome! (so maybe mommy was just as excited as she was but it's still cool!)

Happy Birthday!!! She didn't blow out the candle herself and wasn't even interested until someone told her to touch the candle so she tried and Daddy blew it out before she could get burned!
Ok... I think she might try it now... she spent a good amount of time just looking at the cake instead of eating it

How Exactly dose she get her foot up like that!? and how'd she get frosting on her toes!?

"All done with my cake mommy lets go take a bath!"

So other than the gifts there was an incredible meal! Ben smoked a brisquet for everyone and it was incredible! Then he made homemade ice cream with liquid nitrogen which was a hit! and the highlight of the evening for everyone was the helium tank and balloons that Ben let the kids suck and record themselves sounding funny. Thank you again for the gifts from everyone! Oh, a special thanks for the unpictured gift of a baby gate to wrap around my Christmas tree! My sanity truly thank you!!

Happy Thanksgiving!

For Lindsay: this is Eliza's "Loot"

For Everyone Else: These are all discovery toys that I got a FANTASTIC deal on for Eliza to have a wonderful Birthday and Christmas!

Eliza's first steps (mind you she wont do it anymore) she thinks it's too much fun to just fall into mommy's arms... "catch me Daddy!"

OK so I missed last week and I'm sorry. And I'd tell you that I was going to make up for it this week but that would be a lie. SO.... The most important thing from last week are as follows...

Eliza is growing like a weed! She's doing the clasic Waite growth pattern (round before long) and therefore her pants are fitting (at least for the next few weeks). She is officially 100% stair safe. I learned that one aginst my will by being in the shower and forgetting to block the stairs and when I got out she was just gone... I of course found her downstairs in the kitchen looking for food and playing in the cupbords. Ben worked on Saturday morning and Heather and Heidi stayed the night so that Ben and I could go to see The Producers at the Boulder dinner theater. The play was fantastic the appartment building accross the street burned down while we were watching the play so it smelled like smoke the whole time but it was still good! The twins went to church with us on Sunday and that is the week in a nut shell!

So this week:

Monday was easy going and nice. I had a presidency meeting and that went well. Other than that Eliza and I worked on different little projects around the house all day.

Tuesday was a totally different story I woke up a little bit late, Eliza had dinner from the night before in her hair and needed a bath. AND I had Jane and Macie coming over to play all day (They are the girls I'm going to be watching once a week while their mommy works as a nurse). So when they showed up Eliza was in still in the tub ... not the ideal way to start your morning. Not to mention the dishes that were over flowing from the sink and the living room that looked like a tornado and just been through. So when my mom walked in my door at 8:00am it freaked me out but I was really very relieved to have an extra set of hands to help get something productive done! Plus it kept me from killing the girls in the first few hours together. So a HUGE thanks to my mommy for showing up when I needed her so much!

Wednesday I had Jane and Macie again so we pretty much just hung out at the house while I did the 6+ loads of laundry that needed doing (shameful when you run completely out of socks and underwear before you do your laundry!)

Eliza playing in some Christmas decorations I bought... "Look mommy I'm pretty!"

Thursday was a relief to have only ONE baby to take care of! I celebrated by getting out of the house and doing a little shopping for some craft supplies.

Friday I spent the day in Loveland with my mom and we did lots of shopping for the big turkey day next week! Eliza took a rediculously short nap so she went to bed at 6:30 that night which was nice for everyone!

Eliza Lounging in her new Favorite chiar, oddly enough she hated this thing when she was actually small enough to be using it!

Saturday Ben has finnally finnished the wonderful masterpiece in the garage... no not a priceless piece of art work... He finnished the tool bench he's been wanting to build! In the process he was in our attic and he found this beautiful end table with a leather inlay that looks great in Eliza's bedroom! (I'll post pictures of those later because Eliza's sleeping and it's cold and dark outside!) We also got a rotisserie for Ben's smoker to cook the Thanksgiving turkey!! Wahoo!

She's such a cheese! But she loves to ride her pony!

Interesting talent...

I wanted to share:

This video is absolutly incredible! I just wanted to share it with everyone!

http://www.youtube.com/v/QZFkZiwMLZ4

Happy walking!

Eliza decided to take her first steps this week! Wahooo!!! I know that everyone keeps telling me I'm going to be sad that she's so much faster once she walks, but I think they're wrong! I'm so excited to watch her grow and move from each stage of life so no matter how challegeing it may become to have a toddler in the house I'm going to find everything I can to love about it too! Her walking is not excellent and she still wont take more than three steps before sitting down or falling down... so technically she's not really walking but she does think it's a great game to "stand up- fall into mommy's arms" over and over and over again. It gets old for mommy but she loves it so much I play anyway!

Eliza is only a matter of weeks from turning one! As I recall a year ago from this time of year I was pretty much hating life, not sleeping, and I had this giantic belly that liked to kick me! Therefore in a few weeks from now I will be celebrating the end of those miserable times... I think I actually slept better with a newborn than I did in that last month of pregnancy.

Ben has been busy with work and working on the house. He got some of our Chirstmas lights hung up (i know we're early but it was great weather this past weekend!). He also did the final tilling of the yard before next sping when we will hopefully have some grass! We had an awesome activity on wednesday with the YW making paper dresses and having a fashion show... it was a blast! I wish I would have had my camera to take pictures.

I have a video of Eliza walking but it is very poor quality so I'll have to try again sometime in better light. Hope everything is well with everyone else!

Tagged!

All about High School...
1. DID YOU DATE SOMEONE FROM YOUR SCHOOL? Yep I dated a few. Or more than a few… but I didn’t marry any of them so it doesn’t matter J
2. WHAT KIND OF CAR DID YOU DRIVE? “The Beast” (87 dodge ram van), The Jeep (it was Lindsay’s), the White car (Ford Tauras), My car (95 geo prism)
3. DID YOU PASS YOUR DRIVER'S LICENSE TEST YOUR FIRST TRY? yep
4. WHERE YOU A PARTY ANIMAL? Uh… sure I loved parties
5. WERE YOU CONSIDERED A FLIRT? Absolutely!
6. WERE YOU IN BAND, ORCHESTRA, OR CHOIR? Band
7. WERE YOU A NERD? kinda
8. WERE YOU ON ANY VARSITY TEAMS? Swimming 1 yr
9. DID YOU EVER GET SUSPENDED/EXPELLED? Nope
10. CAN YOU STILL SING THE FIGHT SONG? No, I couldn’t even sing it when I went to the school
11. WHO WERE YOUR FAVORITE TEACHERS? Mr Lange, Mrs. Linville, Mrs Wagoner… they all tolerated way to much from me
12. WHERE DID YOU SIT FOR LUNCH? In the 800 hall or outside the 800 hall
13. WHAT IS YOUR SCHOOL'S FULL NAME? Loveland High school
14. WHAT IS YOUR SCHOOL'S MASCOT AND COLORS? Indian, Red and Black
15. DID YOU GO TO HOMECOMING AND WITH WHO? Evan a few times, Other than that I don't remember
16. IF YOU COULD GO BACK AND DO IT AGAIN WOULD YOU? No thanks once was enough for me!
17. WHAT DO YOU REMEMBER MOST ABOUT GRADUATION? That it was really hot, and being sad that it was over
18. WHERE DID YOU GO SENIOR SKIP DAY? don't really remember. I did something with some people but who knows what!
19. WERE YOU IN ANY CLUBS? Drama 2yrs
20. HAVE YOU GAINED SOME WEIGHT SINCE THEN? Yeah, duh! I had a baby it happens.
21. WHO WAS YOUR PROM DATE? 1st-Cody Davis 2nd-Evan Mecham
22. ARE YOU PLANNING ON GOING TO YOUR 10 YEAR REUNION? I don’t know, if they have one probably yes
23. DID YOU HAVE A JOB IN HIGH SCHOOL? Cold Stone creamery, nanny for a summer, babysitting and other odd jobs

Happy Halloween!

Halloween; the wonderful, candy filled, hyperactive children running from door to door with pillowcases... it's a great holiday when your young... and then you get older and the thought of eating as much candy as these kids get makes you sick to your stomach.
But seeing as how Eliza is still so young we did not actually go trick-or-treating. Instead we stayed home and watched movies, handed out candy and put Eliza to bed on time. It was really very mellow and nice. Next year should be interesting since we'll actually be going out.

Other than Halloween we had a very mellow week. Eliza has FINALLY (and I really mean finally) cut her second top tooth and is now working on two others on top. I wish that the whole teething thing was easier on her! But seeing as how it's not I'll take them as is...at least as long as they actually come in.

Really things are going great and I'm loving every minute of being a mom. I'm continually reminded how lucky I am to have such an easy baby. Eliza is so loving and adorable! She is like a never ending fountain of love and cuteness. I'm really very glad that I've had this oportunity to share this time with her. She is the light of my life and I hope she will always know that.