Happy Fathers Day!!

What a Fun week!

Monday we settled back into our routine relaxed a little and most importantly let Eliza catch up on some sleep she was desperatly needing! Ben being the Hero he is went into work even though he was exhausted!

Tuesday we spent a little time at the park with Jackson and Grant but that didn't last too long because it was REALLY hot and we didn't get there until it was almost lunch time anyway. So we went back to the house, had a good lunch and long nap before we went back over to Grandma's to play with the cousins for a little while.

Wednesday we went to my Mom's house for the day. it was really wonderful to see her. Eliza just LOVED playing with Lucky (the dog) and playing with all the toys. My mom and I made tu-tu's for Eliza and Kara for the 4th of July (they're red white and blue and adorable!!). Funny story: Eliza has recently discovered the joy of doll strollers and was busy playing with one when it was finally time for us to go home. So while I was loading up the car grandma was trying to convince Eliza that she needed to say bye-bye. Rather than telling grandma goodbye she ran to the door waved goodbye to Mom and went back to playing. When I started walking back up to the house to get her she promptly ran away to hide so she wouldn't have to go home. Silly girl!

Thursday we ran errands (boring!) and then we got to hang out with Jackson, Grant, Hailey and Brian. Brian spent last week grading AP Lit tests and he got back that afternoon, just in time to take some incredible pictures of Eliza... I don't have any of them yet but as soon as I get them I'll make sure and post some.

Friday Eliza and I ran more errands, got Daddy's fathers day gift and then had the most fantastic afternoon! We played in the little swimming pool and in the new toys that Grandma Waite brought over! (Thank goodness for garage sales!)

Saturday was filled with cleaning, Ben worked that morning and slaved the afternoon away with yard work.

Sunday: HAPPY FATHERS DAY! Ben kinda got the bum end of the deal with fathers day this year. All he got was some new socks! But to be fair, that's all he ask for and it was harder to find exactly what he wanted than I expected! But on that note I'd like to give props to Ben for being the fantastic, wonderful, amazing, incredible dad that he is! He is such a loving dad (and husband!) and I am sooo grateful for everything that he does to support us and allow for me to be home with the kids! He loves Eliza more than I think she'll ever understand and I'm so glad that he is more patient than I am and can remind me to enjoy the little things in life (even if they irritate you!) So Thank you Ben for 2 years of being a Daddy!!

Happy Daddy Day to my Dad and Dad-in-Law as well! I love you both! Dad thanks for making such a happy childhood and helping teach me how I want to be when I grow up. And Brian thank you so much for not killing Ben when he probably deserved it as a kid! He really looks up to you even if he doesn't say it!

PICTURE TIME!!!

Eliza wanted to cook for me, SO I set her on the counter with a pot of water and some marshmallows and she talked up a storm as she "cooked" my supper (as she called it) More cooking... what a silly kid! I've got a future chef!Playing in her new Pirate Ship!! She is madly in LOVE with this toy! and begs to go out if she can see it through the window!Eliza style sprinklers. She hates the ones in the yard, but give that kid a squirt bottle with water in it and she'll laugh histerically while she sprays herself in the face!Pirate ship and swimming pool... this was about as close as she got to the pool until Mom finally had the idea to put her own feet in the pool. Then she wanted to get in... apparently it wasn't safe until mom tried it first.And finally a pregnant picture! I'm 20 weeks now and my ultrasound is scheduled for this Friday. So anyone who doesn't already know the gender (kinda) can take guesses!

Clark Family Reunion

It's been a fun week. We spent the beginning of the week getting ready for vacation; aka cleaning, packing and playing!
We left for Idaho on Thursday morning and arrived that evening. Eliza did really well with the long car ride. By the end she was definently DONE being in the car as were the rest of us. We checked into the hotel and let Eliza play in the pool with her cousins! She LOVED the pool and it made for some tougher mornings because the pool was in the same room as breakfast so she'd beg to get into the pool instead of eating.
Friday we went to Ben's cousin's wedding at the Idaho Falls Temple. It was a beautiful ceremony. Eliza, Jackson and Grant all hung out on the temple grounds with Aunt Abby. Abby did amazing, especially considering that Eliza had no nap and was mad that mommy and daddy left without taking her. That evening My cousin Cami came over to the hotel and we stayed up until midnight just chatting. It was so nice to see her and talk! It reminded me how much I miss having those Biglers around!
Saturday we had a relaxed morning at the hotel before heading over to Grandma Clark's house to work on the coolest little family picture book (it's going into my church bag!). Ben helped install Grandma's window air conditioners for her and the kids all played outside the whole morning. We were really greatful for the covered porch in the back so that we could let them play outside while it was raining. That afternoon we went to Uncle Ron's house to have a big family dinner, white elephant gift exchange and dipping chocolates! Eliza went into day two of NO nap (what a nightmare!) and made me wish that she was more able to sleep somewhere other than a bed. The chocolate dipping was actually a LOT of fun. I didn't think that I was going to enjoy it as much as I did but it really was a blast! Thanks a billion to Aunt Nan who was patient enough to teach us and let us have lots of very imperfect looking chocolates :-)
Sunday we loaded up the car and drove home. There was LOTS of rain and lots of movies for Eliza. But outside of that the drive home was very uneventful. We had a nice homecooked meal at the Merritt's house when we arrived home (thanks dad!) and then we all came home and crashed! It was so great to be in my own house and in my own bed!
As for pictures... I'm sad to say that I did not take ANY pictures while on the trip... I decided that I'll just have to swipe some from Hailey, Mallory, and Grandma Clark.
That was our week and I hope that Everyone else had a good weekend too!

Baking and Growing

Nothing big to report in this week.

Eliza had her 18 month well child appointment! She is growing as usual... the funny spots I posted about last week went pretty much un-diagnosed because the Dr couldn't decide between Hand Foot Mouth Virus and Roseola. So it was determined that as long as she didn't have the rash she happened to be sporting at the time then she could go back to church on Sunday. So three days of rashes later she is back into her normal perfect working order!

As for her growth percentials... Her head has finally quit being abnormally large! She's only in the 25% for head size, 75% for her height, and 16% for her weight. So overall she's getting a little smaller on her growth curve but that is normal for a toddler as active as she is. They didn't do any shots due to some confusion on the records from our last office. So We'll find out later if we need to go back for some of those.

I had my appointment with the baby Dr and everything seems to be going fine with the baby! We were having a really difficult time finding the baby's heart rate... to the point that we couldn't find one at all in spite of the fact that we could hear it moving around in there (a little shy!) So the fact that we couldn't find the heartbeat meant that we had to pull in an ultrasound machine (AGAIN) and make sure that the baby really was doing ok. In the end everything was fine but it does make me giggle a little that I've had an ultrasound EVERY time I've been in to the Dr with this baby. Oh and I'm still measuring a little big but the midwife thinks it has to do with the position of my belly button not the actual size of the baby.

Ben has been busy with work. The company has decided to take a different direction with the whole promotion thing... So Ben will be going back to school (YiPee!) and working full time as well. So we have been talking to different schools and trying to figure out the best solution for finantial aide and such! I'm really excited that Ben's headed back to school but I'm not sure how excited he'll be when the homework starts to pile up.

Ben and I saw the new Star Trek movie and totally loved it! Eliza got to play at grandma and grandpa Merritt's house with her cousins (Jackson and Grant) while we were out! She had a blast but was pretty tired today at church. Oh and it was Eliza first week in nursery!! She did supprisingly well. I left at the begining but she didn't take it so well so I came back and hung out for the rest of the meeting. It kinda stinks that we're going to be gone so much this month she's not really going to get a chance to get used to nursery. But it'll get there eventually!

Enjoying the spoils of baking!It took a little coaxing to get her to actually lick it but once she did it was everywhere!