Eliza's Free Snowball

Eliza and I read 10 books from the library and recieved a bunch of coupons, one of which was a FREE SNOWBALL! I put the coupon in her little purse, loaded her in the BIG GIRL CAR SEAT (for the first time!) and headed to SnoDebot.

Eliza gave the nice snowball man her coupon from her purse, got the strawberry snowball and sat down to enjoy. She found three ways to consume her treat. Here are the results...

HANDS

SPOON

STRAW

This is what she looked like when it was all gone! Maybe I shouldn't have ordered a red one...

Ma Bebe is ONE!!!

Well....13 and 1/2 months actually. She's keeping me too busy to post! I can't believe how big she is. It is getting hard to remember what it was like having a bitty baby. It is so true when they say to enjoy every moment because it goes by too fast! Now she is 17 pounds (still so tiny) and 27 inches. She's got six teeth that you can see when she opens her mouth wide and throws her head back to giggle...which she does often. Her favorite things to giggle at are me being silly by putting her toys on my head or hanging her teething rings on my ear or dancing around all spastically. She will NOT walk. Her preferred method of travel is army crawling on her belly (many of her clothes are stained on the belly from dragging on the ground), though she does like to hold our hands and walk. She can be bribbed by M&M's to let go of one hand and take a few steps. She does have a few words...the most random of all, "duck". She loves the rubber duckies in her bath. And she growls like a lion. Also, she has a talent....COLORING!!! She picks out different colors and it keeps her attention for 15 minutes or so...quite a long time for a one year old.



Her party was mucho fun but oh so tiring! We had a double party with Anna Grace at the church, and they let us borrow the water slide. Eliza dug into her cake and was literally sitting in the cake before she was done!

On her real day we went to the zoo with Daddy, Leigh and the Ash girls. Eliza's favorite part was the slide on the playground...of course.

Cali Vacation

So MUCH Fun!!! After we arrived in San Diego we drove 5 hours to Big Pine to spend Easter with Aunt Sib and her family. We threw Gabby and Eliza a mini birthday party and basically had a great time being with each other. Eliza went back to San Diego with Larry and Cindy, and Jason and I took off on our exploration of California.

First stop: Sequoia and Yosemite National Parks. Summary: COLD, big trees, beautiful mountians and waterfalls. I recommend these parks during a warmer season.

Next: Napa. So RELAXING! We rode the Wine Train (so we would be free to taste =) ) and toured two wineries. I recommed the wine train if you are ever going to be in Napa. Save up. It's worth it.

After that: San Franscico. Beautiful city but I would never live there because it is way to cold. It took me an hour to thaw after spending a day outside in the city. We did all the "touristy" stuff: rode the cable car, walked down Lombard, saw Fisherman's warf and the sea lions, walked across Golden Gate and went to Alcatraz. I recommend this city.

Last: Coast. LOVED the views of the mountians and rocky shoreline. The elephant seals were amusing. Pismo and Santa Barbara were amazing. Go there. I do NOT recommend driving through Malibu. We skipped LA after that because we were so aggravated with the traffic and ready to see Eliza.

THEN WE GOT BACK TO OUR BABY!!!!!

San Diego is a great city. It is so warm and sunny and you get the best of mountians and beach. We hiked, went to the beach, and the world famous zoo. Eliza did NOT like the beach. She cried when I tried to put her in the sand and waves. She LOVED the zoo. She got mad when she started walking away from the baboons. She was watching them, thank you very much!

Overall we had an EXCELLENT trip with memories to last a lifetime. We will be home in less than 24 hours. Thank you Jesus for such a good time with family and giving Jason and I "alone" time. =)

San Diego Baby!

I am typing this in Mrs. Cindy's miniature kitchen in San Diego (El Cajon)!! We made it! Eliza did so well on the plane. No crying or fussing! She didn't even need a bottle to suck on to relieve the pressure on her ears while going up and down. She kept herself busy by tearing up SkyMall, sleeping, clapping and singing, staring at the tiny cars and houses out the window, and trying to get the people in the seat in front of us. We didn't have the fussy baby and we made it here safely. Praise Jesus!! He has blessed us tremendously with such a happy baby.

Swingin' with Paw Paw!!

Little Liza had a BLAST swinging tonight! She is such a little Dare Devil!

Spring is here!

Eliza, Kinley and I celebrated spring by playing outside and making clover crowns. I made the crowns and the girls had a good time tearing them up!

This is Jason's favorite picture of Eliza ever! This was taken at Maw Gen's house a few weeks ago.

Mudbugs and Mudpuddles!

We had a great time at the Hopkins crawfish boil! I love seeing family and catching up with everyone. Eliza didn't eat crawfish but she did eat a spicy potato and lots of Dr. Pepper cake! At one point I realized I hadn't seen her in a while and went looking for her. This is where I found her. In the kitchen with Jason's aunts stuffing her face with chocolate cake! Everyone loves those crawfish!

Josie girl wanted to play in the mud with the big kids! She was so dirty!

Some of the smaller kids took off their clothes to better enjoy the mud puddle! It was a good time for the grown-ups and kids!