And the Birthday's begin!

Fun camping pics... And by camping I mean going to the lake, letting your in-laws cook your dinner for you and going home afterward to sleep in a comfy bed. Don't get me wrong I really enjoy camping but when your 8 months pregnant sleeping on the ground is more than I can take! Eliza playing... 'sliding' down some rocks.

Grandpa Merritt cooking our dinner (Yummy!)

Grandma Merritt... what a cute camper! (too bad the rest of us don't look that good when we camp!)

It's official we've crossed into the never ending celebration of holidays and birthdays for the next few months.

Wednesday was my birthday! but Tuesday Ben, Eliza, and I all celebrated (a day early) and it was great! The whole day overall was a normal at home, don't do a ton, type of day. But that evening Grandma Merritt took Eliza so that Ben and I could go out to dinner which was really nice! (Texas Roadhouse yumm!). Ben is an amazing hubby and he got me socks (which was all i was suppose to get!) and a new case for my camera that is fantastic! and then to top off the evening he even told me that he found the case on a clearance rack and it was completely within budget for him to spoil me which made me even happier!!

This week has been hap-hazard enough that I don't really remember what happend on what days but here are the highlights:

*Eliza and I baked cutout cookies one morning and I learned my lesson that it's not really worth the stress to let an almost 2 year old help bake those particular cookies. Cute idea... great potential... terrible headache afterward!!

* Went to visit daddy at work one day and took cookies (previously mentioned) to feed all his co-workers so that mommy wouldn't eat them all herself.

* Baked my birthday cake and cooked my birthday dinner

* Hung out at Grandma Waite's house... well Eliza did. Mommy went and visited a friend who happened to be in town with her 1 week old (Sooo cute!)!!

* Worked on Eliza's costume a little bit (thanks to Grandma Waite for finding the lamp shade I needed!)

* Went to the Lake and had dinner with the Merritt's. Eliza loved getting to explore and go where ever she wanted! So much open space and dirt to play in made her not care one bit that it was cold outside!

* I took school pictures for a family friend (they turned out pretty good if I say so myself!)

* Saturday was my Mom's birthday (check birthday #2 off the list) I called... we'll have our real celebration next weekend.

* Went to the Relief Society broadcast. Laughed a lot durring the dinner and then had a hard time being reverent durring the meeting (whoops)

Yep that about covers the week we've had... I think.

New Calling...

32 weeks and counting (check out the pic from 25 weeks and it gives a better view of how big I really am!)

32 weeks... still getting bigger

This week has been fun. Eliza and I have spent a good portion of the week working really hard to learn some new words for talking to eachother. Ok so mostly to get her to talk to me so that we're not so irritated with each other all the time. We've made some good progress thanks to the advice from my mom and a blessing of a lot of extra patience from the Lord this past week!

Wednesday Eliza and I went swimming and I was reminded how wonderful it is to not be holding a baby all out in front of you! The water felt soooo sooo soooo good and all the weight of my belly was gone (for the time being!). Eliza loved getting to play in the water and with all the other kids which was great!

Thursday I had my 32 week appt for the baby and everything is looking very normal. I'm measuring just perfect and the baby's heart rate is great too. I even took Eliza with me to this appt and she did great with the whole thing. Outside of the one outburst of tears when the nurse shut the door (she thought we were there for her) She mostly sat there and looked at books and watched everyone in the room very carefully to make sure they didn't get to close to her.

Friday Ben and I had a temple assignment to go do sealings and Ben's parents (who are our default babysitters for these kind of things) happened to be signed up for the same assignment SO Eliza got to have her first ever sleep over at Grandma Waite's house. I spent the day in Loveland and then just left her there when I needed to get back home to change. It was a fantastic time at the temple and oddly enough in the room full of people (half of which were in the Greeley Stake) Ben and I knew everyone in the room except for the sealer! It was really neat to share in that with all kinds of people that we knew from years ago! Eliza LOVED getting to stay at grandma's house. Heather and Heidi even let her sleep downstairs with them. I do wonder how much abuse they took from my wiggly little sleeper all night but it made her day she even told us about it the next morning! She was not thrilled about going home but she was much more upset about Heather and Heidi leaving the next morning to go to the temple than she was about us taking her home (I see where I rank on the 'fun scale').

That was the week in a nut shell. We did have one last (probably last) run on the lake before we call it quits for the season. Ben had a pretty good wreck and is sore today but it was SO worth it (just ask him)! Today in church Ben got a new calling... He's now the second counselor in the Elders quorum presidency. That should be a fun calling, he is a little bummed about giving up his primary class calling because he was finally starting to really like it but I'm confident that he'll love this one just as much!

I thought it was September... Not May!!

This week has been insanely busy! In fact after looking at my calander I'm convinced that it's not September it's actually May, because no one is this busy unless school is about to get out!

Monday we spent the morning on the lake (the water was like glass it was so beautiful I seriously considered getting in to wakeboard myself even if I don't have a life jacket big enough for my baby belly!) We played in the water a little but Eliza wasn't thrilled about getting in, which is strange because she's usually begging to get in. We spent the rest of the day (literally) hanging out at Grandma Merritt's house. Eliza had her nap and I got to sit and visit with Grandma Lael and Grandma Merrit. It was nice to just get to sit and chat for a while. The boys went golfing that afternoon and were out for a LONG time because the course was really busy. But the best part was that Ben finally broke 100 in his game including four par's and a birdie!!!

Tuesday Eliza and I spent the day in Loveland running around with my mom. We stopped at a farmers market (yummy!). We got some of the best bread in the world! It was a lemon white chocolate something-or-another Mmmm! Also did some window shopping at some thrift stores and had an enjoyable day all the way around. That evening I had enrichment (youth group for old ladies!) which was really fun. I love the social time with the ladies in my ward they're all so sweet!

Wednesday I had a dentist appt in the morning so Eliza hung out at Grandma Merritt's house. Past that, we cleaned the car (it was starting to cry every time you opened the door "clean me please! have mercy on my sweet interior!") and hung out for the afternoon

Thursday Eliza was suppose to go play with Grandma Merritt again but it took a ton of coaxing to get her there and then once we were there we walked around her neighborhood a few times before she was willing to go anywhere near the door. Silly girl! I had a Stake leadership meeting that evening that was very informative and fun!

Friday we went back to Grandma Waite's house to play. Eliza chased Lucky around for a good while and played with Kara some. Really it was a fantastic relaxing day we didn't have any major commitments (thankfully)

Saturday the weather here was super gloomy it rained for 90% of the day so we didn't really get out of the house. I was suppose to drive some of our Youth to EFY in Loveland but then we had a bunch of no-show so I ended up getting to go home without the extra trip to Loveland this week. Eliza was totally stir crazy by the end of the day so we tossed her in the car for a quick trip to Sonic for dinner. We even had a picnic in the living room to make it a little more fun for her seeing as how she'd been shut up in the house all day due to rain!

That was my week... I think I saw my house for more hours on Saturday than I did the rest of the week combined so I'm looking forward to a more relaxing week next week!

You know those moments...

This is the swimsuit that Mommy set out...
To be used in the pool that Mommy filled up... This is the child that deemed swim wear unnecessary...

And these are the leggs that turned purple with cold

Because the child wouldn't let the pool warm up before she got in!

NOW FOR THE POST: (sorry for the randomness of picture/text order I'm having computer problems... or user problems :-))

You know those moments when you wish that time could be frozen so you could sit in your blissful moment and enjoy the secenery? My weekend has felt just like that! All I've wanted to do is freeze time and allow myself to relish in the moments of laughter and joy that seem to be so contagious within the world of a toddler! I have loved every minute of it all!

Once we successfully got past the 3am wake up call every night from Eliza it's like the whole world has seemed at peace with itself. We are all much better rested and therefore a whole lot happier! We have spent the week running around trying to come up with new ways to wear out our little ball full of energy so that she'd sleep better and the end result was as follows:

*Go shopping (almost every day this week) ... DON'T SPEND MONEY (ok some but not too much)

*Go to the park... indoor and outdoor

*Attempt to go swimming (that didn't work out because apparently they clean the pool this week. Grr)

*Successfully go swimming in the back yard

*Go to Grandma's house and let Grandma chase the kid around for a few hours!

*Seriously question my sanity and patience level while listening to an almost two year old cry in the store

*TGIS take Eliza on the boat... play in the lake... Nap and back outside

*fill the baby pool again and catch her in it fully clothed (AGAIN!)

*sit with my feet in the pool while daddy grilled and chased the munchkinn around the yard! Remebering all the while that I'm the luckiest wife and mother in the entire world and wishing I could freeze everything right where we were and stay that relaxed and happy forever!

*Go to church... send the baby to Nursery and enjoy a good spiritual feeding!

NOW MORE PICTURES:

These were her gold fish... intended for a snack...

Which turned into a game instead... with diligent effort she placed every single cracker she ate between her toes before freakishly bending her leg up to her mouth to gobble up the fish. At least we know she's a very flexible child

These are all from out Saturday outside! Eliza coaxed Daddy into pushing her down the roller coaster it was SOO funny! Mind you she's soaking wet from head to toe but she loved every minute of it!

It was Eliza's job to push the car back to the track and it got a little stuck... She refused to put the ball down though so she cried instead.

This was to show of Ben's handy work... Those were some of the yummiest ribs EVER! (everyone may commece drooling now!)