"Mommy and Daddy Take a Trip" or "Elizabeth's Big Weekend"

Eric and I had our first weekend away since Little E came into our lives. On Friday morning we flew to San Franciso and then drove to Sonoma. We stayed at a fabulous hotel and Saturday had a driver take us around to "taste" at various vineyards in Sonoma. We ate well and drank a lot! Sunday was pretty much a travel day - up at 6:00, fligth at 10:30, arrive at DFW at 4:00. But it was so worth it! While we were away Elizabeth stayed at Mimi and Papaw's house. And since her cousins are temporarily living there while their new house is being built, she had lots of people to play with! We only took one picture of our trip, but Mimi got quite a few of Elizabeth's exciting weekend.

Here we are at the bar in our hotel Friday afternoon.Meanwhile....look at that big girl!

And everyone went to the park!

Uncle Brian is fun!

And ice cream too!

And out to dinner! Wow - such excitement!

And of course, Papaw's famous pancakes. I hear little E's were shaped like bunnies.

Our little musician?

We were very glad to see Elizabeth this afternoon, but had such a great weekend! Thank you Mimi and Papaw. And Aunt Mique, Uncle Brian, Cousin Isaac and Cousin Alec too!

Elizabeth finds Mommy's Jewelry

Soon after this, one of the beaded necklaces broke and we had tiny beads everywhere! Perhaps not the best place for the toddler to play.

Ok...so it seems this is sideways and I don't know how to fix it - view on laptop and turn sideways.

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Spring Weekend at the Lake

We welcomed Spring with a weekend at the lake. Of course the weekend was mostly raining, cold and even snowy! But we had fun anyway! Mimi picked Elizabeth up from school and then they came by and picked me up at work. We stopped at the candy factory in Cosicana and had icecream! No pictures, but Elizabeth took the spoon and fed it to herself! That was the first time she's really gotten the whole thing - spoon to food to mouth. Apparently the only motivation we needed was ice cream! Then as we got into the neighborhood, we decided to get out of the car and look at the cow. Elizabeth was very interested.

Daddy found us at the lake and we had fun playing on the stump from the tree that had just been cut down. That little girl needs another hair cut!

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The boys came too! Everyone loves Papaw!

The next day it was raining and cold so went into town to visit Wal-Mart. The boys got a new set of clubs. The babies all enjoyed those.

Pick us up Papaw!

And of course - wagon rides!

And we played in the fort.

Eeek! It's Uncle Brian in the fort!

And all the babies took a bath in Mimi's big tub. This was Elizabeth's first experience with other babies in the bath. She didn't seem to think it was a big deal.

On Sunday, Papaw made us all pancakes. Yep - that's a halloween bib.

Mimi and all the babies.

Although this perhaps isn't the best representation (Eric took this one and only picture on or camera during the Mimi and babies photo shoot) we had a great weekend and had so much fun playing with those cute little boys!

Future Basketball Star

Fifteen Months

Our little girl is fifteen months old now. I don't know when I started thinking of her as a "little girl" instead of a baby, but somewhere along the way I did. And she is such a big girl. These days she knows exactly what she wants to do and sometimes gets frustrated when she can't communicate that to us. But when she is happy, she is the happiest little girl around. We are having so much fun with her.

At her 15-month appointment she weighed 21 lb and 8 oz which puts her in the 30th percentile. She was 31 1/4 inches long, which puts her in the 70th percentile. So somehow from the genes she was given by me and Eric she is now tall and skinny!

Her words now include shoe, bye, da-da and finally ma-ma! She also says thank you, which is sounding more and more like thank you. And book.

She knows the sound a cow, sheep and snake makes. She can point to her eyes, ears, heard, nose, mouth and toes.

She likes to do puzzles and she loves to dump stuff out - anything and everything. At the end of the night, I am amazed at what a mess we have - but she basically takes all her toys out and dumps them out. Oh well!

She's gotten really good at coloring, now we are working at keeping the crayons out of her mouth.

She loves canned grean peans and frozen peas. Also animal crackers - this kid eats a lot of animal crackers.

She likes the cheap "take and toss" sippy cups and doesn't want anything to do with any of the 5
kinds of "fancier" sippy cups we have acquired.

Ooh...and the coolest thing is now when you ask her for a hug, she give you one! It's the sweetest thing ever!

Last weekend it was nice outside and we bought this slide. She is having so much fun with it!

Happy Birthday Alec and Isaac

On Valentine's day we celebrated Alec and Isaac's first Birthday. Hard to believe all these babies are now toddlers!

Elizabeth "helped" the boys open their presents and play with their toys.