Jacob, Hillary & Elizabeth

15 Months

2012-01-17T09:14:00.001-06:00

I finally got the holiday post done, now it's time to knock out the 15 month blog. Here we go!

It's hard to believe that Elizabeth is 15 months old. These months really do fly by. She gets bigger and bigger every day and learns SO much. She is so observant and it just takes one time of her watching us do something for her to get the hang of it. We've learned to be pretty cautious! :) We went to the doctor for her well check and got a wonderful clean bill of health. Here are her stats:

Height: 29.25" (16th percentile)
Weight: 20 lb (10th percentile)
Head: 17" (38th percentile)

I could spend all day listing the things Elizabeth is doing these days but it changes constantly. She loves to have fun and be silly...hanging upside down, dancing, laughing, tickle fights, peek a boo and silly noises are some of her favorites. She likes to be INDEPENDENT. She wants to feed herself, she helps me dress her and undress her, she loves to walk and run and explore (especially outside), she wants to climb things on her own and doesn't mind falling. She has a mind of her own and we love that about her. Elizabeth is a picky eater and is so tiny so we don't mind giving her some yummy treats like ice cream and cookies some times. :) She loves to sleep in her crib and never fusses during nap time. She sleeps about 10-11 hours at night. Elizabeth LOVES bath time but HATES having her hair washed. She loves to babble and we constantly are hearing "mama mama mama"...even if she's not talking to me. She points to what she wants and signs "please." She also signs thank you (rare), more and GIG EM! Her development for a 15 month old is right on target if not a big advanced (and that's coming from the doctor, not Elizabeth's braggy mother!).

Here are a few pictures from the past few months...enjoy! :) We'll be back at 18 months to check back in.

Hodge Podge Post of the holidays...

2012-01-16T19:59:00.000-06:00

Merry Christmas, Welcome home Ross, Aggie bowl game, family fun...you name it, you'll see it in this post. I have the house to myself tonight but will only spend a few minutes blogging, so to make a long story short...

We packed up half the house (if you think I'm joking check out the picture below) and traveled to Sherman to welcome my brother Ross home from his mission. We were lucky enough to get him home a little bit early and in time for Christmas. The family reunion at the airport was so fun and everybody was so excited to see Ross. We've said it a million times but as a family we have been abundantly blessed by Ross's two years of service to the Lord and are so proud of him for serving an honorable mission. However, I think it goes without saying how excited we are to have him home now!

We had our annual family dinner the day after Ross came home. This year we went to Babe's, one our family favorites. We had a lot of fun and ate a lot of good food! And the babies did great too :)

This year we hosted our family Christmas Eve party at my parents' house. It's always so fun every year to have all of the Sherman family under one roof for one night. When we were little we used to have a talent show but that's fallen by the wayside as we've gotten older. Andrea still performed for us though with my mom. :)

Christmas morning came bright and early! Everybody gathered on the stairs to see what Santa had brought. We opened gifts and had breakfast before heading to church together. After church we had Christmas lunch with my mom's side of the family and Christmas dinner with my dad's side. We left the day after Christmas for College Station and a celebration with Jake's family. We had so much fun over the holidays getting to spend so much time with family and friends...and eat a million calories!!!

My parents and Ross came to town on the 30th so we could all go to the Aggie bowl game on the 31st. Sweet little Elizabeth didn't want to miss her nap time so she fell asleep in my arms amidst all the loud noise. We had a lot of fun at the game and the Aggies won the last game of their Big 12 career. Here we come SEC!!!

It was so nice to finally be home and put our house back in order before heading back to work on January 2nd. Here's to an amazing 2012! I hope it has lots of great things in store for our family...we are blessed beyond measure and I am not sure how things could get any better than they already are. Happy Holidays to you and yours...better late than never!!

The Adventures of Purse Girl...

2011-12-16T15:24:00.001-06:00

Elizabeth is the best thing that ever happened to me and Jake. Oh my goodness. I do not even want to think about having another child right now because I am so, so, so happy with our little family of 3 and I just love Elizabeth so much! She is such the light in our house and is so precious to us. I want to spoil her and love her and focus on her for a couple of years. There are SO many things that we love about her. We love how quickly she catches on to things, how smart she is, how funny she is and how loving she is. Here she is being funny:

She just did this on her own...and we laughed and clapped for her so she does it over and over. Too funny!

Here she is being loving...she is so cuddly with us:

She loves to cuddle up on the couch and watch TV with us whenever we have it on. Here she is with daddy trying out the 3D glasses.

And back to funny...and the title of my post, purse girl. She has this thing where anything...and I mean ANYTHING...with handles on it must be carried around like a purse. It's like her innate sense of being a girl manifesting itself. Boys play guns by instinct...Lizzie carries things like purses by instinct. I'm not a huge purse person...I have my few and carry them rarely now that I have a diaper bag to lug around. So I'm not sure where she picked it up. But it cracks me up.

Example 1: The Christmas presents. I wrapped a lot of the gifts, but some are in gift bags. She's fairly certain these are under the tree for her enjoyment and must be carried around as a purse.

Example 2: My school lunch boxes. I usually carry in the diaper bag, my purse and my lunch box and put everything in the floor by the door. So she grabs the lunch box since it's the lightest and takes off! :)

Example 3: Wal Mart sacks. We have a cabinet that is FULL of sacks and it happens to be one of Lizzie's favorite places to play.

(I love how she carries it on her elbow!!)

Example 4: While I was in the hospital the mom of one of my students was my RT. She let me borrow her breathing machine for a while in case I needed it and brought it to me in this blue bag. I took the breathing machine out and put the bag in the cabinet with the wal mart sacks. Of course Elizabeth found it and it quickly became one of her favorite bags to tote around.

We love our precious girl!!

Christmas time is here!

2011-12-15T04:35:00.000-06:00

I Love this time of year! Love it. Everything just seems happier. Lights are up, decorations are up...why can't they stay up all year?? You get made fun of if your Christmas lights are up past January. But everything just looks so much brighter! Anyways, suffice it to say...I love this time of year. :)

I love the Christmas movies that come on TV. And I love that Elizabeth is entranced by them. Here she is watching "Yes, Virginia" (which I had never seen before). I had to capture the picture from behind and through the coffee table so as not to distract the cute little thing. :) Ignore that dust! Yikes. I got that taken care of real quick!

And here we are watching Rudolph...one of my all time faves. Notice how sweet little Lizzie wouldn't even look at the camera!

And who wouldn't be happy with this time of year when it means their brother is coming HOME from his mission!!!!!! He sent out "I'll be home for Christmas" Christmas cards this year. We are so blessed to get him home early this year so that he can start school at A&M in January.

Merry Christmas to all!!! It's gonna be an amazing one, I can feel it!!!!

My Own Bed vs. A Hospital Bed...easy choice

2011-11-29T09:58:00.001-06:00

What a crazy few days we've had. I'm exhausted, Jake's exhausted and Lizzie...well she's her normal happy go lucky self. I love that stress and worry don't seem to phase her the least bit. She's so care free.

I've had so many friends and family members praying for me that I feel like I need to explain what exactly you were praying for and express my heatfelt thanks and gratitude. I truly did feel those prayers in my heart, at exactly the right time.

Over Thanksgiving I caught a cold...manageable right? It cleared up pretty quick but left behind a nasty cough and asthma problems. Still, I thought it was manageable and worst case scenario I would go to the doctor on Monday. My asthma got worse and worse on Saturday, to the point where I was overdosing on my inhaler and it was not helping in the least. I got no sleep that night and decided to go to the Walgreens clinic first thing in the morning to get a breathing treatment. Jake got ready quickly and we got Elizabeth out of bed but left her in her PJs. I was thinking we'd be gone a couple of hours max, so I packed some milk and food for her and we left. I was in serious distress and could not even catch a breath. We got to Walgreens and tried to check in but were turned away..the girl could hear how bad I was and told me I needed to go the Urgent Care. I begged for just a breathing treatment but they said no. So I left in tears and Jake took me to Urgent Care. Crying really didn't help the whole asthma attack issue so I tried to calm down. We checked in, paid our $$ and waited and waited and waited. They called me back, I explained my issue and the nurse froze. She turned me away as well saying I needed to go to the ER and have my heart rate and breathing monitored. Again, I begged her for just a breathing treatment...I would go to the ER but I seriously could not breathe. No. I was breaking down at that point so I just walked out and left Jake there to wrap things up and get our money back.

We drove straight to Memorial Hermann since I've been hospitalized there twice before. The ER took us right back, set me up with the doctor and he started assigning treatments. I went to the bathroom before they gave me my first breathing treatment and when I got back to the room the respiratory therapist was waiting for me. Imagine my surprise when I realized it was the mom of one of my students. Such a blessing and tender mercy...I knew Heavenly Father was looking out for me at that point and that I was in good hands.

Side Note...We still had Elizabeth with us at this point and didn't know who to call since we didn't know how long we'd be there. Sonya, the RT I just mentioned, so graciously took Elizabeth into her home with her family and watched her until Jake's mom could get here that night. We were SO grateful for her!!

I won't bore you with hour by hour details....but basically, I started breathing treatments every 3 hours and took some steroid medication. The doctor was concerned with how awful my lungs sounded and on top of that my heart rate was sky high...in the 140s-150s. My breathing was not getting better nor was my heart rate so he started running tests to make sure there was nothing more menacing going on. I had chest xrays and a CT along with some blood work. Everything came back mostly normal but I was still seriously ill. My ER doctor told me he just couldn't send me home with the way my body was not responding to the treatments so they admitted me.

I continued breathing treatments, fluids, steroid medication and antibiotics through my IV and concentrated on getting my heart rate down. The regular floor didn't want to take me from the ER unless my heart rate was under 140...and no matter what I couldn't get it there...so they wanted to send me to ICU. Now I knew I was sick, but not ICU sick. The nurses and doctors fought for me and got the 6th floor to take me and not focus on that high heart rate.

Throughout the night Sunday and all day Monday I continued treatments. I was feeling better but not even close to 100%. I saw a cardiologist for my heart rate and he was stumped as well. I saw a pulmonay doctor who was also concerned with my lungs and heart and their inability to work the sickness out of my system. I had a heart ultrasound to check for peri-partum cardio myopathy but that was negative. The cardio dr said I could go home but my other two doctors said no, one more night. I fell into a bit of a depression at that point because I really was counting on going home. That's when I really felt the prayers and love of those who knew about my situation and had been praying for me. I realized that I was where I needed to be and would be there as long as I needed...the doctors and nurses were excellent and would take good care of me.

My heart rate finally fell into the 100-110 range and I got all 3 doctors to agree to let me go home late in the day on Tuesday. I left with a long list of medications and a few restrictions but was more than okay with that because it meant I could go home to my daughter...and my own bed!

We're home now and I finally feel like I can breathe...literally and figuratively. I'm relaxed now and letting the medication do its job. We're still not sure why it took so long for my breathing to get under control or why my heart rate was so extremely high and wouldn't come down. There are lots of different factors that probably contributed to all of that. I know I scared my family and friends with my hospital stay and I'm sorry for that! I don't think I was ever scared until now when I'm thinking back on how sick I was. I've had asthma my whole life and just kept thinking the breathing treatments would kick in and I could breathe again. I didn't have the normal issues people have with such a high heart rate so that wasn't really bothering me too much. Remembering now all of the tests, doctors, nurses, medications, worried looks, etc...I should have been a bit more worried. But I know that somebody upstairs was looking out for me, keeping me calm so I didn't have an even higher heart rate than I already did!

I'm home now and so grateful. What I thought would be a 2 hour trip away from home turned into 3 days....and a lot of bills! Merry Christmas to us... :) But I'm better now and am feeling very blessed for that. Thank you so much for the thoughts and prayers you sent my way. I feel blessed to have such wonderful, loving and supporting friends and family.

Love,

Hillary

Walking Queen

2011-11-06T07:55:00.001-06:00

For months Elizabeth has been walking around holding onto things or onto us. She's fast and good at it, but as soon as we let go, she plops down. It's funny, because she is usually fearless...but not when it comes to walking! She started taking a few steps about a month ago but wasn't very consistent with it and really wasn't interested. Then, on Friday night, she decided to take off! The video I took somehow got deleted so we reinacted it on Saturday night. :) Enjoy our little walker!! She still has some learning to do, and she still knows she is faster when crawling or holding on to things, but we are headed in the right direction!

Trauma Drama!

2011-10-29T08:39:00.001-05:00

Last Wednesday I had to take Elizabeth to get her blood work done. I knew it wasn't going to be a pleasant experience for either of us. I never watch when I have my blood drawn, but because I was making sure Elizabeth was still, I had to watch this. It wasn't pretty. That needle is huge!! I felt so bad for my little girl but she was such a trooper. We were in and out of the office in 5 minutes and by the time we hit the elevator, Elizabeth had calmed right back down.

I was still a little traumatized though...so I hit up La Centerra and Katy Mills...I finally unpacked my shopping bags last night and this is what I came up with...

8 pairs of Pjs

5 long sleeve tops

2 outfits

2 dresses and a skirt

3 pairs of leggings, 1 pair of jeans, 1 pair of sweatpants and 1 pair of tights

24 total items and I spent less than $250. Osh Kosh and Carters were having 50% off sales and Crazy 8 was having a 30% off sale plus the Clearance rack had some good buys. I hate shopping for myself...but I love shopping for Elizabeth! The only money I spent on me that day was at Bath & Body Works. :) But I'm so okay with that because now Elizabeth is set for some colder weather...thank goodness it finally arrived!

And here are a couple of pictures of Elizabeth right after her blood work was done...

Her blood work actually showed that she is anemic. Surprise surprise. My mom is anemic, I'm anemic...I think my grandmother is anemic (Mimi??)...so I wasn't shocked when the doctor called to tell me that. They do want me to start giving her poly-vi-sol (an iron supplement) to try and get her levels up. We'll check again at her 15 month appointment and see how they look. My mom told me she took poly-vi-sol as a child and so did I. I find it funny that in the 30 someodd years since my mom was a child (you're welcome Mom!) they are still using the same supplement...but if it works, it works!

A Trip to the Pumpkin Patch

2011-10-29T08:11:00.005-05:00

This past Thursday we took a family trip to the Pumpkin Patch...so fun! We'll have to make this an annual tradition. We were the only ones there at the time so we got some great picture opportunities and lots of attention from the owners, who were so nice. After taking lots of pictures and lots of walking up and down the rows of pumpkins, we settled on two big pumpkins and 2 small ones...Lizzie size. :) They threw in a free one for us too...such nice people!

Elizabeth cracks me up. She is fearless...but only in places she is comfortable. It took her a while to warm up to the pumpkins...she went out of her way to not touch them at first. She warmed up after a while and couldn't stop smiling at them. Enjoy our pictures!

Pictures...

2011-10-22T15:41:00.017-05:00

Because who doesn't love a good picture post....

The dress that I made for Elizabeth...yes I said I made it!!!

Elizabeth decided to wake up at 6am one morning so she played in the bathroom floor while I got ready for school and she was just happy as can be!

Elizabeth loves to help me unload the dishwasher. And by helping I mean undo everything I do...

She loves to stand up by herself and "dance"...and cracks herself up doing it!

Practicing her walking skills...we're getting there!

Loving her big girl car seat!!

She looks so grown up in this picture!!!

Playing the piano like mommy

Happy Birthday dear Elizabeth!! We love you!!

I'm ONE!

Elizabeth and her boyfriends :)

We have a 1 year old?!

2011-10-22T15:14:00.002-05:00

Technically we have a one year and two weeks old little girl. I'm a bit behind on this update. But you try juggling a very active one year old and 20 very, very active 6-7 year olds! :) We got her one year pictures taken this morning and I can't wait to see how they turn out!!

We had two parties for Elizabeth and this is the ONLY year we are doing that! Her first party was in Sherman and the second was in College Station. We had a blast, Elizabeth got some wonderful, fun presents, and we captured some great pictures of Elizbaeth digging into her birthday cakes. Pictures are here: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10101199194067354.3388544.8343491&type=1&l=aed4b29f47

Here's a quick update on Elizabeth...I've got to get back to the Aggie game!

We went to the doctor last week and Elizabeth was a trooper. She got FIVE shots (poor baby!) but other than that, was happy as a clam. (What does that saying even mean anyways?!?)

Weight: 18lb, 9.6oz (12th percentile)
Height: 29" (45th percentile)

Crawling/Walking: Elizabeth still crawls at super-sonic speed and that is her main choice of movement. She walks pretty fast holding on to us/something but if we let go, she drops to her bottom. She is just not interested in walking. It's funny because usually she's pretty fearless...but not when it comes to walking. She can stand by herself and just started taking 2-3 steps though, so I'm guessing we're pretty close. I'm totally fine with her not walking...because I know I'll hardly be able to keep up with her when she starts!

Eating: Now that she's one, Elizabeth's diet has changed. She has 3 sippy cups of whole milk a day, more if needed. She eats pretty much whatever we eat for breakfast, lunch and dinner with snacks in between. If you have any ideas/suggestions for good baby meals, let me know!

Sleeping: Still 2 good naps a day, 1-2 hours or more if she's exhausted. If we're out running around in the evenings she grabs a catnap in the car too. If she doesn't get that evening nap she's tired and ready for bed around 8. Sleeping through the night of course!

Clothes: Anywhere from sizes 9-12 months. She's itty bitty and I love it! Shoes - size 3, diapers - size 3

Speech: Elizabeth LOVES to talk and babble. She says "uhoh" all the time..she loves to drop things and say it. She looks at me and says "momma" and Jake and says "dada." She says "byebye", "baba" (sippy), and "papa." She still says plenty of other sounds but those are the words she actually knows the meaning of. She can also sign "please" and "more"

Tricks: Elizabeth loves to make us laugh so when we try to get her to do little tricks she usually is very complient. Our routine of tricks includes the following: waving, blowing kisses, clapping, doing the "touchdown!" sign, signing "please"and "more", shaking her head no, and giving fives.

Development:
-Two teeth on the bottom
-Still no tears...but she does produce moisture in her eyes
-SUPER fine motor skills...she can pick up the tiniest of objects. She loves to pick up objects and hand them to us and have them handed back to her and hand them back to us...well you get the picture. The doctor was impressed with her fine motor skills at our visit last week. :) (proud momma!)
-Understands her name and when we say "no." She has started shaking her head no at us :)
-Laughs up a storm when she is tickled or playing with her favorite toys.
-Loves reading books with mommy
-Mimicks sounds she hears (growling, laughing, coughing, talking, etc...)
-Can feed herself finger foods and hold her own bottle and sippy cup

The Bye Bye Routine

2011-10-22T10:21:00.002-05:00

Elizabeth's vocabulary is starting to grow...her favorite words include uh oh, momma, dada, baba and bye bye. She has to say bye bye a lot....she says it in the mornings to daddy when we leave the house, then to me when I leave her at Missy's and then to Missy when I pick her up in the afternoons. But those are the only times she'll do her bye bye routine. She won't do it with anyone else! Here's how it goes...

Me: time to go bye bye!
Elizabeth starts blowing kisses and saying bye bye and waving bye...she does these over and over in random order and it's precious. As soon as she hears somebody say "bye bye" she starts with with kisses, waves and bye byes. Too cute...

This morning I had her in her Bumbo (yes she still fits in it!) while I was giving her breakfast. She doesn't get to watch too much TV but when she does I turn on the Sprout network. Caillou was on and her face just lit up. She loves TV! About midway through the show Caillou said "bye bye" and Elizabeth started in on her byebye routine with Caillou...I started cracking up so Elizabeth did too. Our little girl is so cute! I wish we had a video camera on her every second of every day to catch those precious little moments.

I've been so super busy and behind on blogging but I'll try to catch up today...I've got lots of updates about our one year old!!

I am a Christian...

2011-10-10T20:43:00.003-05:00

I can't tell you how many times I've been asked if I'm a Christian...after people realize I am a Mormon. My answer is always "of course!"

When we are young, our Primary teachers in church teach us the words to this song...
I belong to The Church of JESUS CHRIST of Latter-Day Saints. I know who I am, I know God's plan, I'll follow Him in faith. I believe in the Savior Jesus Christ. I'll honor His name. I'll do what is right, I'll follow His light. His truth I will proclaim.

Does Robert Jeffress think these words are lies? And others who swear we are not Christians? That's very judgemental. And not Christian-like at all actually. So let me bear you my personal testimony. I know my Savior and Redeemer is Jesus Christ. I strive daily to follow his example and teachings. I know that He died for us and atoned for our sins so that we may one day return to live with him and our Father in Heaven. I believe the bible to be the word of God and I read, study and ponder it as I try to apply its teachings in my own life. In ADDITION to this, I also believe the Book of Mormon to be the word of God as it is another testament of Jesus Christ.

Does that sound so different than what Christians believe? It hurts my heart when people proclaim that Mormons are not Christians because I have my Savior in my thoughts daily and pray to Him and our Father in Heaven on a daily basis as well. I attribute my achievements, successes and accomplishments to Him and his guidance in my life. I know more about my religion than the people who claim we are not Christians so what makes them feel the ability to profess that it is a fact that I am not a Christian? I have never been able to understand that and probably never will. My brother has given up two years of his life to do the Lord's work and serve a mission. He is serving people on a daily if not HOURLY basis. He is sharing the gospel and helping those in need, no matter what religion they are. He is one of thousands of young men and women doing this right now. Are you telling me they are not Christians??

So thank you Anderson Cooper for having the wherewithall to stand up to Robert Jeffress and call him out on the ugly things that he had to say. I will not hold it against him but will instead hope that he is one day enlightened to my beliefs and can understand them or at least listen to them with an open heart and mind. I do not expect everyone to believe the same things that I believe. But my beliefs are very personal to me and I can't take it when they are torn down. My personal relationship with my Savior will never falter and I will always have Jesus Christ in my life. Yes, I am a Christian.

I am a huge fan of music. Often the lyrics to songs touch my heart more than any spoken word can. We sing many hymns at church that reiterate the fact that we are Christians. Here are the words to a well known hymn that we often sing in church. It's one of my favorites...

I believe in Christ; he is my King!
With all my heart to him I'll sing;
I'll raise my voice in praise and joy,
In grand amens my tongue employ.

I believe in Christ; he is God's Son.
On earth to dwell his soul did come.
He healed the sick; the dead he raised.
Good works were his; his name be praised.

I believe in Christ-- my Lord, my God!
My feet he plants on gospel sod.
I'll worship him with all my might;
He is the source of truth and light.

I believe in Christ; he ransoms me.
From Satan's grasp he sets me free,
And I shall live with joy and love
In his eternal courts above.

I believe in Christ; he stands supreme!
From him I'll gain my fondest dream;
And while I strive through grief and pain,
His voice is heard: "Ye shall obtain."

I believe in Christ; so come what may,
With him I'll stand in that great day
When on this earth he comes again
To rule among the sons of men.

Do you want to know more about what I believe? Ask me. Or visit www.mormon.org. But please don't listen to people who are not members of my church...because they won't be able to tell you the truth or bear a personal testimony of my beliefs. I can do that. www.mormon.org can do that. The missionaries we have serving throughout the world can do that.

I am a Mormon...a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints...a Christian...and a servant of God and Jesus Christ.

How Does She Do It?

2011-10-01T09:52:00.003-05:00

Have you seen the previews for the Sarah Jessica Parker movie, "How Does She Do It?" I feel like that's my life. I've got to go see that movie. I really do wake up in the middle of the night with my to do lists running through my head. Yes, I said listS. I keep one for school and one for home. And both can get quite lengthy! These first 6 weeks of school have been SO busy for me. I was coming home feeling exhausted yet stressed because even though I had knocked out some items on that lovely to do list, I still had a ton more to go. It seems like we have a million new things on our plates this year. No it doesn't seem like it, we DO have a million new things happening. And that's okay. That's my job. But it did cause me to be a bit stressed and overwhelmed. Because I don't want to stay at school until 8pm. I can't stay at school until 8pm. I want to go pick up my daughter and spend my afternoon with her. I have errands to run, dinner to cook, house to clean, laundry to do, places to be, people to see! 90mph has been my life lately. And here's how I do it.

My family.

Elizabeth stayed with my parents in Dallas for 4 days. I had Mon-Wed to get my feet back on the ground without feeling guilty about my daughter not being with me...she was with my parents, the next best thing. And I worked hard getting everything done so that when she came home I could devote all my time to her. My sister and her husband brought Elizabeth back to us on Wednesday and are staying with us through the weekend. They have cooked us meals to freeze, cleaned our house, done our laundry, babysat our daughter...everything.

We are very blessed. We both have jobs that allow us to provide for our family. We have loving family members who are more than willing to help us out when we need it. And we have a sweet daughter who loves us and we love her. We are so grateful for all of our blessings and know that we have been given so much. I have realized that it's okay to let some things slide. I know I need to sit back and enjoy life instead of worrying about everything getting done. The other night Elizabeth and I sat outside on the porch watching the rain...and that was the most relaxing moment for me. I need more of those and I'll make time for more of those. Because without them...I'll go crazy!!!

Speaking of crazy, here is our crazy little girl....this is typical Elizabeth!!

Happy Monday??

2011-09-19T09:36:00.004-05:00

Why does Monday have such a bad reputation?? You never hear people complain about any other day of the week as much as Monday. And here's an example of why...

It stormed all night last night. Which I'm not complaining about. We are in desparate need of the rain. But it woke me up all night. Finally I woke up at 4:45 and realized the dog wasn't on the porch...where she should be if it's raining. She was gone. I wasn't about to go out and look for her so I tried to get some more rest before my 6:15 alarm.

6:15 alarm comes and goes...and I must have turned it off because I didn't get out of bed until 7:00. We need to be out the door by 7:20. So I rush to get ready in 15 minutes and then go get Elizabeth up. Poor thing had gotten sick at some point during the night...but I couldn't miss school this morning because I wasn't prepared for a sub and I had a committee meeting I didn't want to miss so I decided to go ahead and take her to the babysitter and maybe take the afternoon off. We get out the door about 7:25 into the drizzling rain, me carrying a 20 lb baby, her diaper bag, my school bag and purse. We're loaded, ready to go. Late, but ready. Then the car doesn't start. At this point, I'm just ready to laugh because it is so obviously a Monday morning. I tried a million times, praying that the car would start, to no avail. So I quickly called our team leader who SO very nicely offered to get everything covered for me (thank you Stephanie!!!!) and Elizabeth and I trudged back inside.

So happy Monday to us! The bright side is I get to spend another day at home with my baby so that makes everything better. And to ease my guilt of not being at work I've been scouring the web/pinterest for ideas to use at school, mainly for the Daily 5 program we use. So now that Elizabeth is down for a nap, it's time to take a breath, laugh, and realize, things could really be a lot worse.

Did I mention Jake's out of town? So that didn't help much either!!

PS...Allee was on the porch. The FRONT porch. She hates storms and being in the backyard so she dug her way out of the backyard to go sit on the front porch. I'm just thankful I didn't have to go search for her....

Why I do what I do...

2011-09-17T16:21:00.012-05:00

It's been a very, very, very busy first few weeks back at school but I'm finally starting feel like I'm back on top of things. I'm loving to get to know my little babies and always enjoy seeing my old students, now 2nd and 3rd graders, around the building. I don't have much time but just thought I'd share a quick story.

A sweet little friend in my class paid me 10 tickets to take his shoes off in class for the day. But he never could get them back on by himself. So as I spent literally like 5 minutes trying to get his feet in his shoes, I started laughing. I was so playing mommy to this little child. And sure enough after we finally got them back on and tied, he said "thank you mommy." And then giggled, realizing his mistake.

Children are precious. I have always loved children...my first dream was to be a pediatrician and I fully intended to pursue that dream. But when I did Teaching Interns in high school and got to work with a first grade class, I saw a different dream. It is amazing to watch children learn, grow and succeed. I love teaching first grade because it is such a year of growth. Those of you that have/have had children that age understand what I mean. You have no idea the amount of joy it brings me at the end of year to look back on everything with the kids and see their faces light up as they realize all that they have accomplished. This is most important to me....showing them their achievements. They need to know what they are capable of so that they can continue to be successful so I try to share that with them at the end of the year. There are many frustrations during the year, I won't try to hide that. But at the end of it all, I always wind up shedding a few tears that last day of school as my first grade babies become second grade bigs.

I love teaching so much. I love my daughter the most though, so I'm not sure I'm cut out to be a working mom. But I do know that even if I stop teaching, I'll come back to it later on. And in the meantime, I will continue to teach Elizabeth, teach my little ones at church, and any other child that needs a little extra love, care and knowledge. My dream of becoming a pediatrician has now changed to a dream of opening my own preschool one day...and I have every intention and desire to make that dream come true.

I like to post pictures of my classroom at the beginning of each year for all of my family who is too far away to see it...so here are a few pictures. I took some when I was working at the school this summer, and some were taken in the first few days of school. Enjoy!!

I was surprised at how much I was able to accomplish even though I had this sweet little one under foot!!

I'm constantly changing my classroom. I've already changed my Calendar wall and have added lots of things to the wall as I like to hang up the anchor charts and such that we make as a class....

This is where I do the bulk of my work with my kiddos...the teacher table.

11 Months

2011-09-07T16:15:00.002-05:00

I'm really having a hard time with this whole getting older thing...and Elizabeth isn't even 1 yet! I think it's because she's so close to being 1. My baby is soon not going to be a baby anymore and that is so bittersweet! The other night I couldn't sleep so I went into Elizabeth's room, picked her up out of her crib and put her in bed with me just because I wanted to be close to her. I've also been caught a couple of times sleeping in the floor beside her crib. I figure I can't do that forever, so I need to take advantage of it while I can! :)

I'm home sick today so I'm doing Elizabeth's 11 month blog one day early. Here's the latest:

Crawling/Walking: Elizabeth is FAST. She can crawl at speeds I can't compete with. She literally can disappear in the blink of an eye. It's almost comical...except for the fact that it sometimes means we lose her. Good thing our house isn't huge! :) She loves loves loves to walk...but only if we're holding her hands! She's pretty fast at this too. We let her practice with her push walker so our backs don't give out on us. :) She'll walk from place to place, holding onto something to keep her balance. She loves to climb up on things or down off the couch or out of our laps. She's a HUGE fan of the stairs.

Eating: We're still trying to get Elizabeth to gain a little weight since she fell off her weight curve. She take 4, 8oz bottles a day though it's sometimes a fight to get her to finish a bottle. She eats 2-3 containers of baby food a day along with bites of whatever we're eating. She's eaten things like mac and cheese, potatoes, bread, spaghetti, etc...

Sleeping: Still 2 good naps a day, 1-2 hours or more if she's exhausted. If we're out running around in the evenings she grabs a catnap in the car too. If she doesn't get that evening nap she's tired and ready for bed around 8. Sleeping through the night of course!

Clothes: Anywhere from sizes 9-12 months. I even stick her in some 6 month onesies if it's laundry day. :) She's itty bitty! Shoes - size 1, diapers - size 3

Speech: We have words!! Elizabeth has always been a babbler, and a loud one at that, but she realizes now that she can use words! She says "uh oh," "mama" "dada" "papa" (we THINK she knows who this is...) and "baba" (bottle). She still says plenty of other sounds but those are the words she actually knows the meaning of. She can also sign "please" and "more"

Tricks: Elizabeth loves to make us laugh so when we try to get her to do little tricks she usually is very complient. Our routine of tricks includes the following: waving, blowing kisses, clapping, doing the "touchdown!" sign, signing "please"and "more", shaking her head no, and giving fives.

Development:
-1st tooth officially in, 2nd on its way
-Still no tears...something to discuss at 12 months
-SUPER fine motor skills...she can pick up the tiniest of objects. Yesterday she was concentrating on grabbing my eyelashes. My eyelashes! Goodness. She loves to pick up objects and hand them to us and have them handed back to her and hand them back to us...well you get the picture.
-Understands her name and when we say "no." She has started shaking her head no at us :)
-Laughs up a storm when she is tickled or playing with her favorite toys.
-Loves reading books with mommy -Mimicks sounds she hears (laughing, coughing, talking, etc...)
-Can feed herself finger foods and hold her own bottle and sippy cup

You get the picture...we have our hands full with one sweet, precious little baby. We love her so much and are so proud of her. :)

Touchdown!!

2011-09-06T20:29:00.004-05:00

Elizabeth is our little bag of tricks. It has been so fun to teach her little tricks and see her learn them. She is a quick learner! She waves, blows kisses, claps, gives high fives, shakes her head no, says "uh oh", signs the words "please" and "more" and her latest trick....

TOUCHDOWN!!! Jake taught her this one in anticipation for the game and she does it all the time! Sooooo cute. I love this sweet girl!!

Here she is practicing her touchdown pose before the game. She throws both arms up in the air and just grins! And she got lots of practice during the game...way to go Aggies!!

Picture Post

2011-08-26T21:31:00.008-05:00

For my few loyal readers...who don't have Facebook and are missing little Lizzie...this is for you :)

Supermom?

2011-08-26T20:56:00.002-05:00

I watched an interesting piece on NBC Nightly News the other night...it was short, just a few minutes long, but really hit home. It was about working moms. And I could completely relate. It spoke of how working moms try to do it all and have this view of being able to be "Supermom." It's hard to balance a job and a family. It just is. It can 100% be done, but it can be hard.

I love my family and I love my job. I know that I am supposed to be teaching right now...this is confirmed for me each day when my first graders walk in with big smiles ready for the day. I teach them to read, to write, about the world, how to be nice, to share...I tie shoes, give band-aids, regulate arguments...I'm a mom. At work and at home. But I will admit there are times where I feel guilty for leaving my sweet daughter....times when I'm literally exhausted and have zero ability to toss her up in the air and hear her laugh...times where I've used up all my patience at school with my kiddos and don't have any left at home. At first I had myself convinced that I was doing something wrong...because I was having a hard time feeling like I was doing a good job at school and at home. This is what the segment called the supermom complex...some call it plain old overachieving. I felt like if I was really doing well in one place, I was slipping in the other. I felt like a failure if I couldn't come home from a long day at school with enough energy to play with Elizabeth, fix a nice dinner, straighten up the house, give Elizabeth a bath and put her to bed, then get back to work on school stuff, etc, etc, etc.

Add on top of that, the fact that 90% of the moms I know quit their jobs to stay home with their child...making me feel like I was doing the wrong thing by going back to work. I even had a mom tell me it didn't seem right to leave her child in the care of another person just to go to work and couldn't fathom why anyone would be a working mom.

So needless to say I really struggled. But that was then, this is now. I worked my way through bouts of anxiety and depression with the help of my family and close friends. Am I the only working mom in the world? No. Am I doing something wrong by working? No. Does it mean I love Elizabeth any less? Of course not. If anything I appreciate and love her even more...and treasure our time together even more as well. I'll be the mom that is sad to see her children go back to school because that means no more spending all day together...not the mom who is happy solely because it means added peace and quiet. Some of the greatest moms I know worked or are working even though they had/have young children. I don't think they are anything short of amazing mothers so why should I think myself to be any different?

I'm not bashing stay at home moms either. I know stay at home moms have their own difficulties and it's not by any means a piece of cake. I was a stay at home mom all summer so I've lived in both worlds. But for me, being a working mom is harder. But did you know it's okay to let a few things slide? The house doesn't have to be perfectly clean every single night. Those papers can wait to be graded until tomorrow. Imagine that! When I realized that, life became a bit easier.

Elizabeth is too young to remember me working right now. She goes to an AMAZING babysitter who loves her like she was her own and takes amazing care of her. I am so lucky to have Missy. Elizabeth reaches for very few people, but Missy is one of them. I know she is in good care and that also makes it easier. Not easy...just easier.

So to you working moms... "Be gentle with yourself and accept that balancing work and family feels hard because it is hard, rather than feeling that guilty or unsuccessful if you can't devote as much time as you would like to your job and to your family."

I've been going back and forth for a while...trying to decide whether or not to click "Publish Post"...this is very personal and very opinionated...and I know not everyone shares my view on this and that's okay. Please know I'm not trying to hurt feelings or knock stay at home moms. Every mom, regardless of working or not, is a good mom if you love your child and take good care of them. And when it comes down to it...that's what matters the most.

Happy Birthday to ME!!

2011-08-13T15:45:00.003-05:00

Monday was my 24th birthday. Most people don't believe me when I say I'm 23 (now I can say 24!)....I've been married for over 4 years, out of college for over 3 years, am starting my 4th year of teaching, and have a 10 month old. And just turned 24. I'm young, I know.

I have to explain, I had a year of college done by the time I graduated high school so I was able to graduate from A&M a year early. I met Jake, dated him for a year and then married him because I knew he was the one. Yes I was only 19 (almost 20!) when we got married, but why wait when you know?? At any rate, "yes, I know I'm young" has become my often heard reply at this point. :)

I so enjoyed my birthday. We had Panera Bread for breakfast....SOO yummy. I had a fun first grade team meeting and we celebrated my birthday as well with lunch and dessert (thank you friends!!) and then Jake and I went to eat at Fleming's that evening. Flemings easily has the best steak EVER. Ever. We had a wonderful dinner in a secluded booth and really enjoyed our time together. The waiter was so nice and brought me a birthday card, a candle in my dessert, and an extra dessert from the chef to take home. We saw The Help after dinner to end our date. I loved celebrating with my little family! It was my first official birthday as a mom and Elizabeth treated me well. :)

Thank you for all of the birthday wishes!!!

Here are some pics from Fleming's...

Ten Months...

2011-08-08T10:26:00.002-05:00

My sweet baby is 10 months old today!! Yes, 10 months. That's 2 months away from 12 months. But we won't go there because I may become an emotional wreck...and who wants that?! This will be quick since I've got to leave soon to pick up Jake from the airport...more on that later.

Crawling: Elizabeth crawls everywhere, never seems to get tired. She crawls on her hands and knees if she's on the carpet but drops to her belly on hard surfaces. Gotta protect those knees. :) She also bear crawls around at times. When she's crawling over things she's smart enough to know to bear crawl. Too funny. She is still quite the little climber...anything that is up off the floor is fair game to climb on to. She can climb up the stairs in about 30 seconds. It is ridiculous how fast my little thing is!

Standing: Elizabeth easily goes from position to position (back to stomach to sitting to rolling to crawling to standing....) and is VERY good at pulling herself up. She loves to make a beeline for wherever we are so she can pull herself up to see what we are doing. She loves to pull up in front of the TV, especially if Baby Beethoven is on. Her favorite places to climb or stand are the TV, couches and refridgerator. :) She loves to walk around with her walker or with us holding her hands. I'm going to have to put shoes on her though if I want her to learn to walk...she's always on her tippy toes.

Eating: We are following doctor's orders of upping the formula intake but it can be a struggle at times. Elizabeth takes 4 8oz. bottles a day, baby food 3 times a day, with snacks and/or table food in between. She is getting to the point of not liking her bottles though so it can be a struggle during feeding times!

Sleeping: Takes 1-2 hour nap in the mornings, 1-2 hour nap in the afternoons, and a 30min-1hr nap in the evenings. Sleeps at least 10 hours through the night without waking.

Clothes: Wearing 6-9 month clothes and size 2 or 3 diapers. I won't lie though...I've put her in a couple of 3-6 month outfits that really weren't that much of a stretch....

Speech: Elizabeth is quite the little talker...she loves to just make sounds and talk jibberish, especially if someone is mimicking her. Her favorite word right now is dada and she says it all the time. We're working on getting her to associate dada with Jake so she knows what she's saying. She also says ba, ga, gi, ma, na, wa and Pa Pa swears she says papa! She is getting to where she is actually talking more rather just making noises.

-Everything goes in the mouth...and she chews and swallows it if I don't catch her. She can find my blonde hair on the floor and picks it up to play with it. She's put it in her mouth a few times which causes her to cough and choke and throw up if it gets to her throat. :( She loves paper and will eat away at it so I've had to put all the magazines and such out of her reach. This is a constant battle because she can find even the tiniest speck of something on the ground and will put it in her mouth.
-Is our little water baby...bath time and swim time have to be the best things that have ever happened to her. She is fearless in the bathtub. She loves to climb up on the sides and put her hands and toys under the running water if it's on. She loves to play with her toys and splash in the water and crawl around in the tub. Not that I would, but I can seriously never leave her alone in the tub.

Development:
-Has her FIRST tooth coming in!!! It's invisible right now but you sure can feel it!! I hope it breaks through soon though because she has not been a happy camper recently.
-Still no tears. Not too worried about this right now though.
-Picks up toys, moves them from hand to hand, holds two toys at a time
-Understands her name and when we say "no." She stops what we're doing and looks at us and if we're not firm enough, continues on what she's doing. :) We'll work on that too!! How on earth do you tell a 9 month old with a cute face no?!
-Laughs up a storm when she is tickled or playing with her favorite toys.
-Loves reading books with mommy
-Mimicks sounds she hears (laughing, coughing, talking, etc...)
-Mimicks actions....she can "give me 5", wave, and is learning to sign "more"
-Can feed herself finger foods and hold her own bottle and sippy cup

Don't go back and read my 9 month blog because I sure did copy and paste a lot of it. But time is short!! Elizabeth is so curious and quite the explorer so she discovers and learns on a daily basis. We are so proud of our strong, smart little girl and love her so much!!! She is staying with Gigi and Pa Pa tonight while Jake and I stay at the W hotel in Dallas. And we're off!!!

A Day in the Life....

2011-08-04T12:57:00.004-05:00

This is how my day started. Happy right?

Yesterday was just one of those days. The kind that makes you want to get back in bed and start over. It started out just fine, as you can see above. I was looking forward to spending the day with Jake & Elizabeth, getting things done, being together. And the morning was fine. We ran some errands, worked on my classroom, went to lunch. I guess our mistake was going home! No my mistake was answering my phone when I knew it was the hospital calling. And so it began.

We were in a car accident about a year ago. It wasn't out fault, the other person's insurance took care of our car and my medical bills (I was 7 months pregnant so they made me go to the hospital) so things really should have been fine. But no.

Long story short...I have an outstanding medical bill for $1500 for the hospital. Thanks to the idiots...excuse me...lovely people at my insurance company. Now the hospital is chasing me for the money, which I will not pay. It's not my responisbility. We have already settled with State Farm. This was supposed to be finished. I'm not going into details because it's a long story and very confusing. But I was on the phone with the hospital (twice), State Farm (twice), Aetna (twice), and the subrogation department (once) forever yesterday. Each person told me to call someone else until I wound up full circle. I just could not handle it anymore and started getting a bit angry with the people I was talking to as they each explained how they could not help me. I'm sorry, but I'm their CLIENT. Their CUSTOMER. And you can't help me? Really? Luckily the adjuster from State Farm really is a lovely person and was able to help me go a step further. But now we're back in the waiting game, seeing if Aetna will realize their mistake and pay for it. Because I'm not.

I've had a lot on my plate recently and unfortunately can not handle stress and anxiety well so this put me over the top. But it's not over yet!

I called my doctor to ask a few questions, then called my mom to cry and complain. She listened to me as she always does, reminds me of a few things that always make me feel better and I felt like I really could deal with the rest of the day. Ha.

I had just gotten off the phone with my mom and sat down to feed Elizabeth. Jake went to lay down. I started to smell a dirty diaper. I decided to finish feeding her before changing her. My mistake. The smell got worse and worse until I checked her to see if it had leaked. Uh yeah. On to her....on to me...on to the couch...I have no idea how that happened. I mean, I do know how to put a diaper on! I started calling for Jake, who couldn't hear me, so as I called louder, Elizabeth started screaming bloody murder because it startled her and she doesn't like screaming. So I pick her up, give her to Jake to throw in the bath tub (because really that's our best bet at this point) and I go to work on the couch.

Then my phone rings in the middle of all this. I would not have answered it but when you see it's your boss calling, you better pick up. She asked me to do something next year that will change my whole year and present a bit of a challenge for me. I talked to her for a while about it....I'm excited about the new experience and taking on a challenge but it did present a whole new level of anxiety for me to deal with. Great. I helped Jake finish up with Lizzie and we all just collapsed.

What may not seem like much to you, was a lot to me. My day ended with a new temple recommend and a chocolate shake so really what more do I need? I have a beautiful family, a sweet, sweet daughter and husband, a wonderful job and more blessings than I can count. It was a hard day, one where you truly do need to count your many blessings, but at the end of that day, I can say I'm a bit stronger and a bit happier. Today is a new day and has been good so far. Though, Elizabeth just crawled over to me and I can smell that smell again. So obviously it's time to end this here. Here's to a new day!! :)

Changing colors...

2011-08-01T11:28:00.005-05:00

I took a picture of Elizabeth this morning because she's been in one of her best moods...my favorite of course. I realized when I took it how light her hair has gotten! In looking at her newborn pictures I was reminded of just how dark all that hair was at birth!!! Over the past 10 months it has really lightened up. So we'll see who's hair Elizabeth winds up with...my blonde or Jake's brown. I'll be happy with either one! :)

Less than one week old...I was hard pressed to find a picture where she didn't have a bow covering up all that dark hair!!

Taken today at almost 10 months old...quite the difference!!

Lizzie & Landry

2011-07-31T21:01:00.015-05:00

I've been meaning to do this post for a while and keep forgetting. So here it finally is! Lizzie & Landry are fast friends. It was kind of predetermined seeing as their daddies grew up together and their families are good friends. These two might have to get married one day just so we can use all these pictures in a wedding video! We love Landry (and his mom and dad too!) and love to get these two cuties together. They are a lot alike and Kellye & I have enjoyed talking about the babies and things we/they are doing. It's hard to believe Landry will be ONE next month and Elizabeth will be ONE the next. Talk about growing up too fast!!! Here are a couple of pictures from the past 9 months of friendship...

As you can see, not only will we be forcing an arranged marraige on these two, we will also be forcing them to go to A&M! But really, would they even think about going anywhere else?? Probably not!

One of their first play dates...I think it is the first actually.

Both so little!!! They are about 5ish weeks apart but so different in size right here!

Valentine's Day LOVE!

They're both saying "seriously?!" to their daddies for making them take this picture.... :)

Two sleeping babies playing at Sean & Kellye's house....so precious!

Bath Time

2011-07-27T09:10:00.005-05:00

Elizabeth LOVES the water. Judging by the first few baths she got as a newborn, we would have never guessed that. But who likes sponge baths anyways?? She loved her infant tub. Bath time could last forever when she was in that thing. But a couple of months ago when she was learning to crawl and pull up, Elizabeth got to the point where she started trying to climb out of it. Slippery baby + water = Falls. I decided she was just ready for her big girl tub. So now she takes baths like a big girl and loves it even more. She is quite the swimmer. When she's on her tummy in the pool she paddles her arms and kicks her legs. Being in the bathtub is no different. Elizabeth gets a bath pretty much every night as it's part of her bedtime routine and I'm pretty sure it's her favorite part of the day!!

Last night we went to the neighborhood pool right before bedtime. When we got home I put her right into the bathtub and decided to snap a few pics before I took her swimsuit off. She has too much fun!! Enjoy...

All of these letters go straight into her mouth. She is like a little puppy dog with them hanging out her mouth. :)

If you look at the water you can see how much she was kicking and playing....it's splashing everywhere!!

She also loves to suck the water off the washcloth. Gross. But she's smart enough to suck the water off, put it back in the water to get it wet again, then repeat. Silly, silly girl. We love her though!!

I thought I loved you then...

2011-07-24T22:23:00.004-05:00

If I had a dollar for every time I heard a song, especially a country song, that I felt described me and Jake, I would be so rich. But I especially love Brad Paisley's song, "I Thought I Loved You Then." One of my all time favorites. We heard him sing it in concert recently and I just melted of course. As mushy as it seems, I really do fall more and more in love with Jake all the time which I think is a key part of marriage. I remember the night Jake told me he loved me...I really thought I loved him then. But in the 5 years plus that it's been since that night, I realize that yes, I did love him...but that love has grown and changed and evolved. And I expect it to continue to do so for the rest of eternity.

We started dating in January of 2006 and were married July 21, 2007. Last Thursday we celebrated our 4 year anniversary. We celebrated by going to eat and to a movie... I'm lucky to have a husband who loves me enough to take me to see Harry Potter at the imax....in 3d. Ha!! We're going to the W Hotel in Dallas in a couple of weeks and will be eating at craft so I'm counting that as part of our celebration as well. :)

I love the blog that I did last year for 3 years so you can read that there and we'll just catch up on the past year:

Obviously our big news is baby Elizabeth. We expanded our eternal family on October 8, 2010. Words can't describe it, it was just the most amazing day of our lives.

We have experienced numerous holiday, milestones and experiences that have changed and blessed our lives. When I stop and count my blessings I realize I have truly been blessed beyond measure. I love my husband and my child with all my heart and though I know there are times that I may not show it like I should, that love is always strong and never falters. The past 4 years of our marriage have been wonderful and I look forward to many, many more.

Austin/SA - 200th Post!

2011-07-10T12:33:00.022-05:00

When I logged on I realized this will be my 200th post! Happy 200th to me! :)

Jake and I wanted to go on a little getaway with Elizabeth...not too far, not too close, not too expensive, not too cheap. So we settled on going to Barton Creek Resort in Austin and then on to San Antonio for a couple of days. We really enjoyed ourselves. I'm not a huge fan of Austin....probably because it's full of longhorn fans :) but it was beautiful. We were right in the middle of hill country and the scenery really was gorgeous. We went out on the golf course with Jake and it was absolutely beautiful. We swam, relaxed, and Jake golfed something like 5 times in 3 days. After spending a few days at the resort we met Jake's dad in San Antonio. They golfed a couple of times and Lizzie and I did some more relaxing. We had a great time on our mini vacay! I didn't take too many pictures and the ones I did take were on my phone, but here they are...

Elizabeth is such a good helper....here she is helping me pack.

We stopped at the barbecue capitol of Texas, Lockhart, and ate at a really good barbecue place.

Swimming at Barton Creek...beautiful!

Elizabeth loves the water....I wish we had swam more but I hate to get her out in the sun too much.

She loved loved loved the king size beds we had. She played on them and slept on them as well.

I would choose this bed over a pack n play too!!!

Out on the golf course, resort in the background.

At a cheer competition in high school we ate at the Hula Hut and Jake had been there before too so we headed out there to eat one night. Lots of fun!!

Lizzie golfing with daddy

Teaching Elizabeth how to putt her purple ball.

Dancing at Mi Tierra in San Antonio.

Time to go home!!! :)

9 Months

2011-07-08T10:49:00.011-05:00

9 months....I was pregnant for 9 months...Elizabeth has been alive for 9 months...wow.

At the doctor today the nurse was asking me if Elizabeth got her Hep B vaccine in the hospital...I had to rack my brains because that seems like SOOO long ago. But it was really only 9 months. Time is crazy like that.

So here are her current stats:

Height: 26 7/8" (25%)
Weight: 16lbs 4oz (10%)
Head: 17" (25%)

As you can see, she is still my very petite little girl. Her weight actually fell off of her growth chart which had been holding steady at the 25th percentile. :( Now she's in the 10th. I actually was worried that I was OVER feeding her. She drinks 7oz of formula 3 times a day and 8oz in her last bottle before bed. I also started giving her a full container of baby food 3 times a day as opposed to a half. On top of all that she loves to snack on puffs and yogurt melts and has started eating table foods as well. Obviously I had no reason to worry though, because all this food is having the opposite effect it seems!! Dr. Dehlavi recommended upping her bottles to 8oz and continuing everything else I'm doing and we'll check again at 12 months.

What else is new:

Crawling: Elizabeth still prefers to scoot on her belly. She can crawl on her hands and knees and does so very well...but she only does that maybe 40% of the time. She'd rather be on her belly scooting around. Silly girl! She is still quite the little climber...anything that is up off the floor is fair game to climb on to. She has discovered the entire house now and her favorite places to go are the kitchen, the breakfast room and the laundry room.

Standing: Elizabeth easily goes from position to position (back to stomach to sitting to rolling to crawling to standing....) and is VERY good at pulling herself up. She loves to make a beeline for wherever we are so she can pull herself up to see what we are doing. She loves to pull up in front of the TV, especially if Baby Beethoven is on. Her favorite places to climb or stand are the TV, couches and refridgerator. :)

Eating: I pretty much said this already. Takes 4 bottles a day, baby food 3 times a day, with snacks and/or table food in between. This will change this month.

Sleeping: Takes 1-2 hour nap in the mornings, 1-2 hour nap in the afternoons, and a 30min-1hr nap in the evenings. Sleeps at least 10 hours through the night without waking.

Clothes: Wearing 6-9 month clothes and size 2 or 3 diapers

Speech: Elizabeth is quite the little talker...she loves to just make sounds and talk jibberish, especially if someone is mimicking her. Her favorite word right now is dada and she says it all the time. We're working on getting her to associate dada with Jake so she knows what she's saying. She also says ba, ga, gi, ma, na, wa and Pa Pa swears she says papa! She is getting to wear she is actually talking more rather just making noises.

-Everything goes in the mouth...and she chews and swallows it if I don't catch her. She loves paper and will eat away at it so I've had to put all the magazines and such out of her reach. This is a constant battle because she can find even the tiniest speck of something on the ground and will put it in her mouth.

-Is our little water baby...bath time and swim time have to be the best things that have ever happened to her. She is fearless in the bathtub. She started climbing out of her infant tub and slipping so I just decided she was ready for the regular tub alone. She loves to play with her toys and splash in the water and crawl around in the tub. Not that I would, but I can seriously never leave her alone in the tub.

Development:

Still no teeth and no tears. Not too worried about this right now though.

Picks up toys, moves them from hand to hand, holds two toys at a time

Understands when we say "no." She stops what we're doing and looks at us and if we're not firm enough, continues on what she's doing. :) We'll work on that too!! How on earth do you tell a 9 month old with a cute face no?!

Laughs up a storm when she is tickled or playing with her favorite toys.

Loves reading books with mommy

Mimicks sounds she hears (laughing, coughing, talking, etc...)

Can feed herself finger foods and hold her own bottle and sippy cup

As you can tell, Elizabeth learns and changes on a daily basis. It is so amazing to me how babies develop so quickly. In the past month alone she has learned so much and continues to want to learn more. She is so inquisitive and curious just like her daddy. She is fearless and adventuresome...but also stubborn and determined. 90% of the time we have the happiest girl on the planet. We are so grateful for our little Lizzie and can't wait to see how she grows and changes over the next month!!

At the airport getting ready for her first airplane ride!!!

Sometimes we have days where all the toys in the house just won't suffice

I want out mommy!!! We've since lowered her crib so I don't have to constantly worry about her falling out.

Her first encounter with a deer...ha!

I got you mommy!!!!

I love to stand here!!!

She absolutely LOVES watermelon. LOVES it.

Baby Lizzie & Baby Beethoven

2011-07-06T11:46:00.007-05:00

I was walking around Target recently waiting for a prescription to be filled (never a good thing to just be "walking" around Target...) and picked up a Baby Beethoven DVD/Music CD for Elizabeth. It may be one of my best baby finds in a long time.

Elizabeth's morning naps are like clockwork. She gets tired between 9:30-9:45 and I put her in her crib for nap time. She always cries but usually only for 5 minutes, 10 max. She then takes a pretty good, long nap. I'm not complaining...I hate the cries but it's worth it. Enter Baby Beethoven.

She LOVES the DVD. She will sit in her jumperoo and watch it, totally enthralled. If she's crawling around and it starts up she makes a beeline for the TV and pulls up so she can stand right in front of it (but you know what mama always said about sitting too close to the TV...). I thought I'd try out the music CD during naptime one morning so I stuck it in the CD player in her room and left.

Not one tear. I thought it must be a fluke. But for the past few days, not one tear at naptime or bedtime. Is it possible that my baby really WILL be a Baby Beethoven?! I grew up playing the piano and still love to play, and have hopes that Elizabeth will want to play as well. We shall see!! :) Right now she is only interested in the pedals...

Happy 4th!

2011-07-04T13:16:00.002-05:00

Happy 4th of July!!! We are so grateful for the freedoms that we have thanks to the thousands upon thousands of brave men and women that have fought for our country over the span of many years. We feel so blessed to live in this country, the land of the free and the home of the brave.

Love,

Jacob, Hillary & Elizabeth

PS We are home from vacation and have a few days of absolutely nothing to do before taking off again...so hopefully I can get the blog updated throughout this week. Look for updates soon, we've had such a fun summer so far!

8 Months

2011-06-08T08:47:00.012-05:00

Happy 8 Month Birthday to our sweet little one! Elizabeth has been very busy this past month as she has learned we have an entire house to explore. I've got to buy her some Baby Legs...her poor knees are always red! Here are a few things that we've been up to:

-Elizabeth is becoming quite the little mover. Like I said she's discovered the different rooms in our house and will quickly make her way from room to room. She likes to follow us if we leave a room and is so sneaky! I was making dinner last night and I turned around and she was sitting in the kitchen with me...silly girl! I left her in the living room! She also climbs onto the coffee table shelf...what am I going to do with her?! She makes grunting and growling noises when she's frustrated or really concentrating on getting somewhere.

-Eats 1.5-2 containers of Stage 2 baby food a day. She loves it all except for peas...she refuses to eat those. :) She has four 6 or 7 oz bottles a day. She loves to snack on Gerber puffs and yogurt melts. We're still working on the sippy cup.

-Still no teeth and no tears. I'm not worried about the no teeth but the doctor said we'd discuss the no tears at her 9 month appointment next month.

-Wearing all 6-9 month clothes finally, no more 3-6 month! She is up to about 16 pounds and we vary between size 2 and size 3 diapers.

-IS LOUD!!!! She is so funny when she babbles...sometimes it's just one loud sound....but it's SO loud. She says the ba, ga, gi, and ma sounds and sometimes just nonsense sounds.

-Everything goes in the mouth...and she chews and swallows it if I don't catch her. She loves paper and will eat away at it so I've had to put all the magazines and such out of her reach. This is a constant battle because she can find even the tiniest speck of something on the ground and will put it in her mouth.

-Is pulling up and climbing...She doesn't like to be laying down. Her favorite thing to do is pull up on her Bumpo and stand up. I'm thinking we'll have an early walker!

-Sleeps about 9-10 hours at night and takes 2-3 good naps a day

-Loves bath time and swim time! If she could live in the water, I think she would!

-Loves to touch EVERYTHING. She loves different textures and feels I guess because she will touch, scratch and bat at anything in reach

Here are some recent pictures of our Lizzie. Her 6-9 month album can be found HERE

No-No Lizzie!!!!

Look at me Momma!!

Where's Lizzie?!?

Rocking away :)

Happy mornings are our favorite!

Getting so big and strong!

Her view on bows is a bit different than mine obviously....

She pulled the doorstop right out of the wall...obviously a few more baby proofing things to do!

Our First Mother's Day

2011-05-22T08:26:00.015-05:00

We had a wonderful Mother's Day this year, and our little Lizzie made it all the more special. We were in Sherman with my family from Thursday evening through Monday morning and made great use of the short time we had together. Family time, friends time, dinners, pedicures, shopping...we squeezed it all in! :) We got to Skype with my brother who is serving a mission in San Diego and that was SO fun. It was the first time for him to see the babies so it was pretty cool. We really enjoyed our time together that weekend and I realized how very blessed we are with amazing friends and family. I have especially recognized the blessing it is to be a mother, even more so over the past couple of weeks.

Elizabeth came a little earlier than we planned. Ideally we would have waited to get pregnant until I could stay home with the baby. But after my doctor's recommendation and much thought and prayer we decided sooner would be better than later. And here came Lizzie! We have been blessed beyond measure with a sweet, smart, happy and healthy little girl and are constantly thanking our Father in Heaven for all that we have been given and the privilege it is to be her parents. The past 8 months have changed our lives for sure. There have been ups and downs, tears and smiles, frustrations and laughs. We've experienced emotions ranging all across the board. Even in the toughest moments I wouldn't trade this for anything. I love being a mother and am so lucky to have a precious child of God in our home to care for. We love our little Elizabeth so much and get our greatest joys out of just being with her and watching her laugh and smile. This Mother's Day meant so much to me even though it seemed like just another day. I realized how much I love being a mother and how much I love my own mother...and grandmothers...and sister...and all the ladies in my life! I am very blessed and can't say that enough.

Enjoy these pictures from our fun-filled weekend!

She loves her baby food so much that she'll do a backbend to get it!

My dad's mom with Chloe and Elizabeth

My mom's mom with Chloe and Elizabeth

Two of my beautiful grandmothers with Andrea and Alivia

3 generations...Lizzie, Mommy and GiGi

Showing off Gigi's Mother's Day present from Pa Pa :)

Picture Post

2011-05-17T20:19:00.012-05:00

Here are pictures from the last month or so....

One of her first go's at baby food. She's a fan!!!

Happy Lizzie!

So ready to start crawling!!! She can army crawl all over the place and she is super fast!!

Looking guilty!!!

I love this picture because it's so cute but I hate it because she looks so darn grown up! Yikes!

She kind of remind me of a rocker chick in the picture...like she's screaming...classic.

Uncle Ross calls this the "I'm kind of a big deal" look

When Elizabeth was a newborn I used this basket to hold wipes, diapers, burp cloths and feeding items....then I didn't need that anymore so I switched it to a toy box...but she's happiest when it's empty and she can pull it up on top of her. She is too funny!

Her feet are not used for walking...they're used for holding toys or as a teether to put in her mouth. :)

She loves her daddy so much....so precious.

7 Months! (...And 1 Week...And 2 Days)

2011-05-17T11:34:00.002-05:00

A little late, but here we go. Our little Lizzie turned 7 months old on Mother's Day. What a happy gift! She continues to grow and develop and be the sweetest little angel. So in love with her!

What's the latest:

-Continues to be quite the mover! She's graduated from rolling to crawling...or semi-crawling actually...I guess it's the "army crawl." And she is FAST. We turn our backs and she's into the DVDs, into a different room or underneath something. She thinks this is hilarious and gives us huge smiles when we catch her so we can't help but laugh at her. We've been working on the baby proofing.

-Sits up all the time...on the floor, on the couch, in the grocery cart, in a high chair, everywhere.

-We started baby food when Elizabeth turned 6 months old. For the first month we did Stage 1 foods...green beans, apples, bananas, squash, sweet potatoes, etc... After a month of that we started Stage 2. She hasn't met a food that she doesn't like although bananas don't seem to agree with her as we had our first case of constipation in the middle of church on Mother's Day. :( She LOVES her food. I put her in the Bumpo one day and had her food on the floor next to her and she did a backbend to get to it. I'll post the pictures later. If I put her bottle on the floor she races over to it to pick it up and is trying to figure out how to hold it on her own. She has also started working with a sippy cup. She can drink the heck out of it but prefers to have us hold it for her.

-Has started talking TO things. She's babbled for a long time to herself or to the air but now I've noticed her looking at me or hands or her toys and talking. So cute...I wish I could understand those little conversations. She loves to be swung around, tossed up and down and tickled..that's how we get the biggest laughs.

-Her favorite toys do not include baby toys that you can find at the store. She'd much rather have sunglasses, phones, remote controls, electronics, cords...etc... Not the safest items!! Why is that?!

-Sleeps 8-9 hours at night on her tummy or side. Scared me at first but this is how she sleeps best so I won't fight it!

-Can stand alone when holding onto something. She can't pull herself up yet but if I stand her next to the couch she can hold herself up. I think we know what's coming all too fast....!

-Into 6 month clothes and up now, no more 3-6 months. Her 9 month clothes swallow her so we'll save those for later on in summer.

-Loves the water...continues to love bath time and enjoyed her first experience in the pool (heated of course!) She will kick and play all day! She also loves to play outside and be with our dog Allee. She think Allee is the funniest thing ever. :)

-Celebrated her first Easter in College Station

-Celebrated OUR first Mother's Day in Sherman

-Went to her first Houston Rockets basketball game and Aggie baseball game

She had her 6 month pictures taken a month ago...Here is a link to our photographer's blog:
http://www.kendramartinphotographyblog.com/?p=2513

And here are all of her pictures: Go to www.kendramartinphotography.com then go to clients and the password is anderson2011

A Must Have Recipe...

2011-05-11T13:45:00.003-05:00

Let's start by saying I don't belong in the kitchen. I like to bake and cook and try new things, but let's face it...sometimes my creations are an epic failure. Or at least a never do again kind of thing. I can follow a recipe down to every last word and something still goes wrong. I will give myself a tad bit of credit though...I've had a few things turn out REALLY good. And this is one of them...

My mom forwarded me this recipe and I think she got it from my sister. They're stuffed pizza rolls (which we get at Double Dave's all the time and love). We had one version of them on Sunday at my mom's house but last night I tried the recipe on my own and followed every single word of it. :) And it was a winner. These are simple and easy and pretty quick and made my house smell like a yummy Italian restaurant. They are good for a big family or a little one and will please any pizza eater out there. So try them and enjoy them!!! They may just become a staple in my house one day!

Stuffed Pizza Rolls

1 roll refridgerated pizza dough (or make your own)
Marinara/Pizza Sauce (can even use Ragu!)
2 T Parmesan Cheese
1 T olive oil or melted butter
1/2 t garlic powder
1 t Italian seasoning
Mozzerella cheese
Pizza toppings of your choice (pepperoni, ham, pineapple, sausage, etc...)

Preheat over to 400.

Unroll your pizza dough onto a lightly floured surface. Pat or roll the dough so it's about 12" by 8". Cut the dough into about 24 squares using a pizza cutter.

Place cheese and desired toppings on each square. You can eyeball how much just keep in mind that you will need to enclose the toppings in the dough. The marinara/pizza sauce is for dipping but I actually put a little in the rolls as well.

When all of the dough squares have cheese and toppings on them, carefully lift up each square and wrap the dough around the toppings. Pinch to make sure each ball is sealed shut and then place them seam side down in a lightly sprayed pie pan. Brush the tops of the dough balls with olive oil or melted butter and then sprinkle with the garlic and Italian seasoning and top with Parmesan cheese.

Cook them in the oven for about 10-20 minutes or until golden brown. Serve warm with marinara sauce on the side for dipping.

Sorry I didn't take any pictures of my masterpiece! :)

Happy Easter!

2011-05-02T18:30:00.003-05:00

We had a wonderful Easter weekend in College Station. We went to an Aggie baseball game, swam in the pool (heated, thank goodness since we took Lizzie for her first swim!), did some fishing and shooting, spent time with family and friends and of course, hunted Easter eggs! I really wanted to take the time to post the pictures here but I'm going to have to settle with just posting the link to my Facebook album. I've got a sleeping baby and a limited window to get dinner going! Not to mention I've been hit hard by the allergy bug this evening so I've got a sinus headache coming on. ANYWAYS! Here is the link to my Easter Album...

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/fbx/?set=a.10100823523638904.3290472.8343491&l=b8d654a2c5

In other news, we're heading to Sherman this weekend and I am SO excited! I haven't been in 2 months and am REALLY missing my family up there. We'll get to Skype with my brother on Sunday and he'll get to see the babies for the first time so we're really looking forward to that too. I have some other blog updates to do but for now, this is it! Love to all!

Jumping = Exhausting

2011-04-18T13:51:00.002-05:00

Jake stays home with Elizabeth most Mondays and works from home. It's a win-win...we save $$$ (no childcare), Jake gets daddy-daughter time, and I get fun pictures texted to me of their day together. Here's today's picture.... Somebody got a bit tired in her jumperoo!!! Jumping really can wear you out you know!

6 Month Stats

2011-04-13T13:48:00.006-05:00

Went to the doctor yesterday and got a clean bill of health of course!! Elizabeth was so much fun and spent the whole time showing off to the nurse and doctor. She showed how she can talk and squeal and say "babababababa" until the cows come home. :) She showed off her amazingly good posture as she sat up straight by herself... She rolled all over the table and tore the paper up with her kicking and playing... She showed off her beautiful smile and her contagious laugh and had us all wrapped around her little finger. We just had a good time and who can say that about going to the doctor?!

Elizabeth got 3 shots and an oral vaccine and cried of course for the shots but was fine as soon as I picked her up. She takes it like a champ!

The doctor was overly pleased at Elizabeth's progress and strength and said she is doing really well. We decided to give her a little more formula if she'll take it and go ahead and start actual baby foods as well. We did green beans last night so we'll stick with that for a few days and see how it goes. She acted like they were no different than the oatmeal that she can't get enough of so she seemed to like them!! I, on the other hand, had a little taste and was NOT impressed. :) I'm seriously looking into making our own baby food and seeing how it goes. We'll see. Any recommendations?

Her stats were as follows:

Weight: 14 lbs, 13 oz (25th percentile)
Height: 24.5 inches (10th percentile)
Head: 41 cm (12th percentile)

The doctor told me before she gave me the percentiles that the numbers were low but not to worry because Elizabeth is progressing as she should on her growth chart. She knows me too well. :) She is just a small little girl and we love her for it!! All in all it was a great visit and we can't wait to go again at 9 months!!

6 Months Old

2011-04-08T14:01:00.021-05:00

I feel like 6 months is such a huge milestone for babies. When they're younger than 6 months it seems so young and small and newborn/infant - ish. When they're older than 6 months it seems like they're just bigger and smarter and not so babyish any more. I know, wait until she's seriously not a baby anymore. But oh my goodness...my baby is just amazing to me. I can not believe she is 6 months old, I can not believe the progress she has made in the past 6 months, I can't believe the strength that she has, the things that she has learned, the way that she has grown....it truly is a miracle that only God can provide. His little children are so precious and I am so grateful that He blessed me with one to raise and take care of.

There has been SO MUCH going on over the past month so CAUTION: lots of reading!!! Here is the latest with Lizzie...

-Is mobile...she has discovered that she can roll around on the floor to get across the room or get to a toy (or cell phone!) and thinks this is hilarious. She has even wound up half under the coffee table a few times! She can push herself up like she's ready to crawl, scoot herself forward and in a full circle. Basically, she's just never in the same spot that we put her down so we have to be more careful with her!

-Is sitting up on her own...has been doing this for a while but is lasting longer periods of time and not having to hold herself up with her hands anymore. When she's on the couch or in her bouncy seat she can use her strong little abs to pull herself up into a sitting position.

-Is eating oatmeal and formula still and loving it. If I'm not fast enough with a bottle or the spoon, I hear about it!

-Is laughing, smiling and talking all the time. She loves to laugh at us and does the funniest laughs to get US to laugh!! She prefers to just smile at you though and saves her laughs for the really funny stuff. She jabbers all the time, whether it's saying "ba ba ba", "ga ga ga" or just squealing. She is truly a little social butterfly. She will smile at anyone who smiles at her or gives her a funny face and wants to interact with new people...which is good because there for a while she wanted nothing to do with anybody besides me, Jake or Missy.

-Is grabbing onto everything in sight from mommy's hair to mommy's clothes to mommy's shoes to mommy's cell phone...you get the picture. She wants everything she sees and most of it goes straight in the mouth. She grabs her paci and plays with it all the time and puts it back in when she wants it. She especially loves to grab hold of burp cloths or towels and stick them in her mouth.

-Continues to become a better sleeper. Jake and I left her overnight for the first time with my parents and she slept 9 hours. Of course she's never done that for us....not before and not since. But she does normally take at least 3 naps a day and sleeps 7-8 hours at night. She prefers to sleep on her tummy...even if we lay her on her back she'll roll to her tummy to sleep.

-Continues to gain strength...her little legs are always working as she pushes up on them in order to stand. She loves to be standing rather than sitting or lying down so she's pretty strong in the leg department. Maybe she'll follow in mommy's footsteps and be a gymnast. :)

-Is wearing 3-6 month clothes still (6 month clothes are a little big) and size 2 diapers.

-Absolutely LOVES bath time. Oh. my. goodness. Bath time is pretty much the most amazing thing to ever hit the planet according to Elizabeth. She could sit in her bathtub for hours if I let her, splashing, kicking and playing with her toys. She loves to splash herself in the face and thinks it's funny when I squeal after she splashes me too. Bath time is probably one of my most favorite times with her.

That's about it for now. We head to the doctor next Tuesday for her well check/shots so I'll post next week what her current stats are. We certainly don't have any dull days in our house and our loving our sweet girl more and more each day!! Happy birthday Lizzie!

Here are some pictures I snagged today while she was in a happy smiley mood...We're getting her 6 month pictures done on the 16th with Kendra Martin Photography, the same girl who did her newborn portraits...so excited, she is AMAZING!

Brad Paisley

2011-04-03T09:29:00.013-05:00

For Valentines Day Jake surprised me with tickets to the rodeo. He wouldn't tell me who was performing that night so we got online and it was Brad Paisley!! Jake knows how much I love him so he bought tickets for the night he'd be there. Not just any tickets...front row action seats. We were on the dirt, front row, perfect view of the rodeo events and Brad Paisley. It was so fun! We really enjoyed our day walking around the rodeo and then our night with Brad. He came down off the stage and walked around the arena giving out picks and playing his guitar. He came right to us and threw us a pick...love! Jake put his hand up for a high five and since Brad was playing his guitar he put his bicep up for Jake to slap instead so we high fived his arm. :) He put on such a great concert and we just loved it. I pretty much have the best husband ever!! Here are some Brad pictures.... :)

Discovery Green

2011-04-03T07:33:00.008-05:00

Jake and I went to the rodeo/Brad Paisley concert over Spring Break and left Elizabeth with my parents at our house. It was our first time away from her over night but she did wonderful. She slept 9 hours for them...something she's never done for us before or since! So I guess they had things under control. :) On Sunday morning my parents needed to head back to Dallas so they brought Elizabeth to our hotel in Houston on their way out. We took her over to Discovery Green to go for a walk and play in the fountain...it was such a gorgeous day!!!

Not too sure about her first water experience...besides bath time! Which she totally loves by the way...

Put me back in Daddy!!!

Playing with her piggy...we had to get her a souvenir from our vacation!!!

Our sweet girl will be SIX MONTHS OLD next week. Time has got to slow down for me!!!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!

2011-03-18T14:47:00.007-05:00

Elizabeth had her 5 month pictures this morning so I thought it would be cute to dress her in a St. Patrick's Day outfit. I had the onesie but I didn't want to just pair it with boring jeans or pants so I decided to make a tutu. Gigi and I knocked out the tutu pretty quick last night and she was all set with a big green bow and some white leggings. Here's our sweet girl....

So Happy St. Patrick's Day (belated) from little Lizzie! :)

2011-03-14T11:48:00.004-05:00

On Saturday night Jake and I headed to downtown Houston to the Four Seasons hotel for the AXA Awards Banquet. It was a black tie affair so Jake put on his tux and I found this steal of a dress for 65% off, $25 and we were ready to go.

There was a cocktail party first, followed by a sit down dinner and awards presentation. It was an absolutely beautiful evening and a wonderful party. I really like Jake's co-workers so it was nice to spend the evening with them as well as meet other members of the company from across Texas. To work in Jake's industry you really have to be a people person so the atmosphere of the party was so friendly with everyone mingling together, introducing themselves to everybody and starting conversations about any and everything. I really enjoyed myself and I know Jake did too. He did enough business this year to be invited to the banquet without having to pay so that was an added bonus! Our goal next year is to get invited to the big trip. This year's trip was to San Diego of all places...I would have LOVED to go there, maybe sneak an excursion to find my brother. :)

Here are some pics of our night.

5 Months!

2011-03-08T05:38:00.008-06:00

Honestly, so much has changed in the past month! Elizabeth grows and develops every single day and I just can't get enough of her...or enough pictures! I visited my old school yesterday and literally everybody told me they loved looking at all the pictures I post on facebook...maybe I post too many?! Oh well, here's what's been happening lately.

Elizabeth...

-is MOBILE! Not in terms of walking or crawling obviously. But if you put her down, don't expect her to be in the same position 5 seconds later. She's been rolling over since 2 weeks old but has just recently started rolling back to tummy and she loves it! When she's on her tummy she kicks her legs and is able to move in a circle and forward a few inches. She cranes her neck in ridiculous positions so she can look around and rolls on her side so she can get different views.

-is STRONG! She pushes all the way up on her arms like she's ready to crawl. She also thinks it's funny to balance on her tummy with her arms and legs off the ground...I caught this yesterday. She's getting good at sitting up on her own and loves to stand up as well. I'm thinking we'll have an early walker.

-is HUNGRY! She takes 6 oz of formula every 4ish hours and eats rice cereal. She hates rice cereal though. So we're moving on to oatmeal. We decided not to start her on baby food until 6 months.

-is NOT a sleeper! She will sometimes take such good naps and sleep all night but she's just not consistent. I will say she is getting better, but we've had it rough the past few weeks...and my body now believes 6 hours of sleep is plenty...so if I go to bed at 10, I wake up at 4. Nice. And no matter how many times I lay her down on her back, she will only sleep on her side. We think she's having trouble sleeping because she's teething which leads me to...

-is TEETHING! My sister confirmed my suspicions. Sure enough she's probably going to have a tooth break through soon. Which leads to some very loud, fussy evenings and nights. She isn't a fan of teethers, whether they're cold, frozen, room temp, vibrating, etc...Tylenol is really the only thing that works for her but I try not to give it to her unless everything else has failed.

-is FUNNY and LOUD! She loves to smile at Jake and I but most other people have to work for one. Her favorite way to laugh is with her mouth wide open, no sound. I call that a laugh because that's all we get a lot of the time. She's pretty stingy with her belly laughs! She also loves to blow raspberries and it always sounds like she's filling her diaper so we get some funny looks when we're in public. Her Pa Pa (my dad) thinks this is hilarious and he was cracking up at her the other day...which made her crack up as well. She realized how much attention she gets when she makes that noise so she literally does it all the time. SO funny! She is still talking a ton too...she talks the most we've realized when she has her hands or something in her mouth. Her squeals are precious!

-is a GRABBER!! She loves her hands and want things in them. She grabs hold of anything in her reach from my clothes, hair and even skin to toys, burp cloths and blankets. She pulls blankets up to her eyes and peaks out underneath them, so cute! She grabs her paci and plays with it and is learning to put it back in correctly but this is rare. She usually just pulls it out to play with it and then chews on it.

There is probably so much more, but I've been working on this post on and off for 2 days now, the clock is inching toward 9pm and I need a shower. So I'm off for now! Love you sweet Lizzielu!!!

So Blessed....

2011-03-01T19:47:00.006-06:00

I've kicked Jake out of our bed and put Lizzie in his place (don't judge!...plus Jake likes our guest bed). She sleeps absolutely fine in her crib but I'm not ready to put here there yet, at least not at night. I love having her with me in our room. But she's starting to not like her bassinet or swing as much as her crib so I put her in my bed and she sleeps wonderfully. I know, I need to stop that. Anyways! I woke up at 4am this morning and the first thing I see is my beautiful sleeping baby girl. I can't even describe the amount of love I felt for her at that moment and how grateful I am to be blessed with a sweet child of God. I love this baby girl and her daddy so much! Family has always been #1 to me and I'm thankful for the opportunity I've been given to start my eternal family. Life, for the most part, is wonderful right now and I'm just so grateful for my many blessings!

This picture is just priceless to me..she refuses to lay on her back unless she's buckled in...this is how I found her after being out of the room maybe 5-10 minutes max. Precious!

Too young? Probably so!

I'm most grateful for modern day miracles. I've experienced a couple of literal miracles over the past weeks and it has been an eye opening experience. Just makes me realize how blessed we are! :)

Getting stronger and bigger...

2011-02-26T08:40:00.005-06:00

Elizabeth has always been a strong baby. We were amazed when she was two weeks old and doing tummy time and she rolled over. At about 2ish months, whenever she was on her back and we held her hands, she'd pull her head up like she wanted to get up...so we pulled and she sat up in the sitting position and kept on going to the standing position. Now for the past 3-4 weeks whenever she's on her back her head automatically goes up...so I decided a couple of weeks ago to start practicing sitting up...and she loves it!! She can sit up fine on her own when she's leaning against something but just recently she's been able to keep herself up on her own for more than 5 seconds at a time! I'm ever the hovering mom as my hands stay right beside her to catch her before she falls but that's what moms are for right? So here's a few pictures of sitting up...she's up to 30 seconds-a minute before she wants to topple over!

Picture Walk...

2011-02-21T17:17:00.019-06:00

Hanging out on the chair before going to Missy's

At Missy's with Kyla sharing a stroller and not a fan!

Happy Spring!

Did you like these pictures...well there's more where that came from! Whenever I'm doing a reading lesson with my kids and we're reading a new story, I like to take a picture walk through the book. We look at each picture and the kids try to come up with ideas on what's happening in the story. Good practice at making predictions. So here's YOUR chance to practice...here's a picture walk through the past couple of weeks in Miss Elizabeth's life... enjoy! :)

LOVES to hold my finger while taking a bottle...and LOVES to fall asleep while taking a bottle...but she perks right up when she's done.

First try with rice cereal!! She wasn't a huge fan but is getting better.

Happy Valentines Day!!!

How pitiful is this?! Yet so CUTE!

Daddy's love :)

Ruffle bootie

Hi mom!

Found this when I was downloading pics to the computer...Jake put Lizzie in bed with me and took this while I was sleeping. :) This is the least embarrassing of the two that he took!

LOVES to go for walks!! We walk about a mile 3-4 times a week and she gets so excited each time!

Ever the guard dog!

Elizabeth LOVES her side!! We now have to put the video monitor on her while she's in the swing or just buckle her in.

Saturday evening walk to the park...first time on the swings with mommy!

2011-02-14T05:30:00.000-06:00

Happy Valentines Day!!!

What an amazing year....

2011-02-07T11:55:00.011-06:00

February 8, 2010: I took a pregnancy test at school that turned out to be positive...so I took about 5 more throughout the day just to be sure! Jake works late on Mondays so I cooked our favorite dinner and had it waiting for him when he got home. I told him it was an early Valentines present since we'd be in Sherman for Valentines Day. I couldn't wait so before dinner I gave him his "present": the baby blanket we bought in Argentina, an "I'm having a baby!" poem and the positive pregnancy tests (in a baggie of course, ha!). I got the whole thing on video and that is something I will always treasure.

This past year has been wonderful. I may have had a rough pregnancy but it was SO worth it, obviously. I love my sweet little girl who is four months old today. It's so weird to think that on this day a year ago I had no idea that I would be a mommy in exactly 8 months. Time has flown this past year and I can't believe Elizabeth is already 4 months old!!! Here's the latest on her... and I'm not gonna lie, some of this I copied and pasted from her 3 month blog a couple of weeks ago!

Stats:
12 lbs, 9 oz (27th percentile)
23 inches long (11th percentile)
40 cm (15.74") head circumference (24th percentile)

Yes, she's my petite little girl!! Her growth is perfect for her, but obviously she's a bit on the small side!

-Got her next round of shots today...took them well with only a little bit of screaming!
-She's VERY strong. She lifts her head and chest up during tummy time AND when she's on her back. She rolls from tummy to back and has recently started turning onto her side from her back, so it won't be long before she's rolling from back to tummy.
-Is a happy girl!! Still smiling a ton and laughing as well. She loves it when we make that vibrating sound with our lips.
-Is a great imitator...she imitates a lot of what we do...sticking our tongue out, making an o with our mouths, blowing bubbles, making vibrating noises with our lips and hissing...all of this she'll do back at us.
-LOVES her voice...she squeals all the time but especially when she has her hands in her mouth. She's started saying "ah-goooooo" so cute!
-Speaking of hands, they're always moving, along with her legs. She loves to use her hands...she'll clasp them together, wave them around, put them in her mouth (ALWAYS!), grab her toys, bat her toys, grab our fingers...she just loves to move her hands and use them. Her legs are always kicking too.
-Follows us around with her eyes...if we're playing with her and get up to walk somewhere, she follows us as long as she can with her eyes wondering why we're leaving her...she's not a fan of this.
-Loves to be pulled into the sitting position and on up to the standing position and is good at holding her head upright and steady and putting weight on her legs
-Recognizes me and Jake and our voices
-Blows bubbles ALL THE TIME. All the time! She also make a funny vibrating noise when blowing bubbles...hilarious!
-Taking a bottle great and eats about 5 oz at each feeding (breastmilk or formula). We're weaning off breastmilk and onto formula since pumping is just not working for my work schedule. It's hard to give up feeding Elizabeth breastmilk so we may still give her 1-2 bottles of it a day...because even a little bit is great!! She gets to start taking rice cereal now too, yay!
-Sleeping a bit better...she takes naps during the day but saves her best sleep for night. She takes a long evening nap and then sleeps for at least 6 hours during the night.
-Loves her paci, learning to love her thumb

That's about it! Here are some pics I took tonight. She was so sleepy but we managed a few smiles from her.

Learning to stand and put weight on her legs

Practicing sitting up

I email Ross pictures of Lizzie each week and he made the comment a few weeks ago that "she's always smiling!" That made me realize the only pics I take/post of her are of her smiling or just plain being cute. But let's be realistic here...we experience our fair share of tears!! Or in Lizzie's case, cries...because she has no tears.

TV always soothes her...she's infatuated with it...

We have a love-hate relationship with tummy time!!!

We love our sweet girl and are looking forward to where this next year will take us!

One year down...

2011-01-31T21:23:00.003-06:00

...Less than one year to go!!! On January 27, 2010 my brother entered the Missionary Training Center to begin his two year mission for our church. This past year really has flown by and I didn't think it would. Ross is one of my best friends and to not be able to see him for 2 years is a really hard thing for me to be ok with. But I am so proud of him and his dedication to the Lord to sacrifice two years to serve Him. Ross will come back next January in time to start the spring semester at A&M and we are definitely counting down the days!! Though we've missed him so much, he is in the right place doing the right thing right now and we wouldn't have it any other way. I can tell from his letters and our back and forth conversations on Tuesdays that he is the same old fun-loving, humorous, easy-going Ross that we all know and love. But he has also changed so much. He has become so much more mature and just plain smart. He has learned so much over the past year and will continue to learn and grow during this next one too.

We get to Skype with Ross in May for Mothers Day and are SOOO excited. He'll be able to see the babies move and talk instead of just pictures...and we'll get to see him!!

So here's to the next year flying by...love you Ross!!!

PS...are you not just so proud of me?! Three blog updates in ONE day!!! :)

Bunches of pictures...

2011-01-31T21:09:00.023-06:00

If you're my facebook friend, you probably just want to ignore this post because it's all pictures that are on facebook. But for my grandparents who I miss so much and who don't have facebook...here you go!!! :) Me and Lizzie love and miss all of you!!!

Guard dog....

2011-01-31T12:50:00.002-06:00

Should I be updating my blog at school?? Probably not. Am I going to do it anyways?? Obviously. Because this picture is just too cute and I know my grandparents can see it here....not so sure if they know how to open at attachment. So here it is...our guard dog and our baby. Does it really get any cuter than that?

Can I just say that we're fairly certain Allee knew I was in labor before I knew it. The night before Lizzie was born when my water broke and I was in denial and refusing to believe it had broken...Allee came inside and instead of running around like a crazy dog when we let her in, she came right to me in the bathroom and curled up at my feet and didn't move. If you don't know Allee you don't realize just how unusual this behavior is. She's so full of energy...but since then and since Elizabeth was born she's always been like this picture shows. What a good girl!!!

Dear Mom and Dad...

2011-01-23T17:17:00.003-06:00

Top 10 Reasons I'm Glad You'll be Here in 5 Days:

10. I can't shop without you mom...you know that. And Elizabeth and I are in desperate need of new clothes.

9. Allee is due for her rabies booster Dad. Want to take her to the vet? You know you're her favorite!

8. There's a ton of gossip...I mean news... to catch up on so I think a pedicure is in order for the girls.

7. Jake and I have tried some great restaraunts that we want to share with yall.

6. I'm looking forward to rolling Elizabeth's bassinet into your room in the middle of the night so she wakes YOU up at 6am and WE get to sleep in!

5. I always love our morning coke runs in my PJs..just please no surprises this time!

4. It gives me motivation to get my house in tip-top shape.

3. Elizabeth has grown so much just since Christmas and I can't wait for you to see her!

2. The garage needs cleaning (BOYS) and the house has some decorating projects that needs doing (GIRLS).

1. I just plain miss yall!!! Get here soon!!! Like early Friday afternoon rather than later Friday evening!

Three Months!

2011-01-21T18:28:00.017-06:00

Elizabeth turned 3 months old on January 8th...and today is January 21st. Yikes!! Like my previous blog said though, it's just been more important to me to spend my afternoons and weekends playing with my sweet girl now that I'm back at work. But I'm taking advantage of her nap she's taking and catching up on a few blogs.

What's been happening lately....

-Her upper body is getting VERY strong...she loves to lift her head and chest up when on her tummy and she can lift it high!! She also tries to sit up when she's on her back...she's gotta have some amazing abs because she does it all the time!
-She laughs and smiles a lot...especially smiles. If Jake or I look at her she smiles. If we smile at her she smiles and laughs. It's precious!! She loves to smile at her babysitter too. :) She's also a squealer!! Whenever she's happy she squeals away...too funny.
-When she wants attention she screams!! And it's not a mad, angry scream it's a "Hey, I'm here, look at me!!" scream. She kind of knows she's center of attention around here...we can't help but laugh at that scream. But if we don't give her the attention she wants it turns into a mad cry
-Loves to use her hands...she'll clasp them together, wave them around, put them in her mouth (ALWAYS!), grab her toys, bat her toys, grab our fingers...she just loves to move her hands and use them.
-Follows us around with her eyes...if we're playing with her and get up to walk somewhere, she follows us as long as she can with her eyes wondering why we're leaving her...she's not a fan of this either.
-She now remembers that she can roll over...if she's on her tummy she doesn't last long before she rolls over to her back
-Loves to stand and use her legs...she's kicker for sure; her legs are always going!
-Loves to be pulled into the sitting position and is good at holding her head upright and steady (though she's still a bit wobbly)
-Recognizes me and Jake and our voices...she lights up when she hears her daddy!
-Blows bubbles ALL THE TIME. All the time! She also make a funny vibrating noise when blowing bubbles...hilarious!
-LOVES to use that voice to chatter!
-Taking a bottle great and eats 4.5-5 oz at each feeding. We've also started supplementing with one formula bottle at night. Going back to work has hurt my milk production so using formula helps. And she's happy no matter what is going in her mouth!
-Sleeping a bit better...she takes naps during the day but saves her best sleep for night. She takes a long evening nap and then sleeps for at least 6 hours during the night. I usually have to wake her up to take her to the babysitter and she eats over there around 8ish after not having eaten since midnightish. She still sleeps best if she's swaddled.
-We've deemed her stretch "The Lizzie Stretch". It's SOOOO cute!! She throws back both arms above her head, throws her head back as far as it will go and shakes it back and forth and arches her back. I really need to grab a picture, but I'm always holding her when she does it!
-Addicted to the paci!! But she's also started sucking her thumb. This is an awesome self soother but a nasty habit to break later on!
-Loves her babysitter and is adjusting well to being in a different place during the day. I'm so glad she loves Missy, I really didn't want to go the daycare route and am so blessed to have found Missy.
-Has not gotten sick yet, knock on wood!!

Okay that's about it I guess!! I'm not sure I'll have anything new in a few weeks for her 4 month blog...ha!! We go back to the doctor for her 4 month shots and I'm really anxious to talk to the doctor about a few things as well as see how much Lizzie weighs..she's definitely getting bigger! Here are some recent pics...

Love my precious girl!!!!!!

First Christmas!!

2011-01-21T17:49:00.018-06:00

One of the best parts of having a baby is all the firsts you get to experience. It seems like every day there's some kind of "first"...no matter how small! So here's tribute to Elizabeth's first Christmas...that's a big one! :)

We headed to Sherman on December 18th for my good friend's wedding. It was an outdoor wedding and was absolutely beautiful. No detail was left undone. I wish I had taken some pictures! Here we are...about 5 1/2 years ago!

We had a great time in Sherman spending time with our family and friends. I always go to my grandmother's house to help her do some Christmas cooking and I always enjoy that so much. It's our time together and I'll always remember our wonderful conversations and her patience with me and my lack of cooking skills! I still think she throws out everything I've done and makes it over again!!! :) We had a lot of fun, despite my grandpa's relentless teasing. It is what he does best after all. Love you Mimi and Popa!!!

We also headed to my other grandparents' house to decorate Christmas cookies, something we've done every year since we were little. Grandma always made us tell her the rules and we joked this year about how now that we're adults we can break all those rules. :) It used to be 9 of us cousins ranging about 12 years apart. This year we were all there with the addition of our spouses and children ...but minus my brother. :( We had lots of fun, and it was so crazy how it's OUR kids that are doing the decorating!! Though us oldies did our fair share. We tortured Lizzie by sticking her in the highchair that Kayson abandoned. She's such a good sport. What we do for some funny pictures.... :)

Classic family picture in front of the Christmas tree...with our plate of cookies

Grandma and Grandpa with the great grandkids. How did we get anything done with 5 children under the age of 4?!?

Pa Pa was in heaven, having his two grandbabies at home at the same time...

We went to my Aunt Janna's house for Christmas Eve. Our whole family gets together every year either at her house or my mom's for good food, fun, entertainment and this year, a visit from Santa! :) One of my very favorite traditions. Here's Lizzie with her cute Santa hat that she wore all of one time. Such is life with baby stuff.

Christmas morning we were up bright and early...well I was at least, feeding the baby so everyone joined me as we opened presents. Elizabeth is on a schedule of eating, wake time for an hour to an hour and a half or so, so by the time we were ready to open presents, she had gone back to sleep...of course!! So she slept through all the fun. But here's the pretty bracelet my mom gave her...which will stay in my jewelry box until it won't fall off her small little wrist.

Chloe was wide awake and having fun!

Brooke and I got Chloe and Elizabeth the same present...totally on accident. Crazy!! Great minds think alike, obviously...

Elizabeth woke up so we let the cute cousins hang out together...already best friends! :)

Elizabeth and her fun present from Gigi and Pa Pa...love her face

Classic "we're looking rough" picture on Christmas morning....

Cousins!! Andrea was sure she was holding Elizabeth by herself :)

We headed to College Station for the last part of our Christmas vacay and again, had lots of fun with family and friends....here's Lizzie with her Aunt Karli

Her shirt says "My Aunt is Awesome"..she's got 3 awesome aunts!

LOVE this...she looks like she's having a good thought!

We fit all this in our 2 cars along with Allee and her things. It was a tight squeeze and I hated that we had to take 2 cars but we were gone for almost 2 weeks. It was so nice to be back home and back on our schedule and in our own beds.

Long time, no blog...

2011-01-17T17:25:00.003-06:00

...and for good reason. After a lovely 3 months at home with Elizabeth I headed back to work a couple of week ago. So for the past month I haven't worried about anything but spending time with my sweet girl...hence the lack of blogging.

On October 8th I went to work while I was in labor (hey I had to give the spelling test!!). When I left school to go to the hospital (because there was no denying I needed to go!) I left that world behind me and didn't touch it again until January 4th. And LOVED not touching it.

But let's face it. Though my calling in life is to be a mother...my other calling is to be a teacher. I love children, whether they are my own or not. I feel a need to care for them and be there for them and teach them about everything...reading, writing, math....and life. So going back to work was a bit easier for me than it probably is for someone who doesn't enjoy their job.

I miss my daughter, don't get me wrong. It's been VERY hard to be back at work and there have been more than a few tears shed. But it is what it is. I needed to go back so I could help provide for my family and so I can take care of my 18 first graders who, I believe really need me...and I need them!! I need their sweet hugs and big smiles and innocent crazy questions. I need their unintended sarcasticness (or intended with some...) and their funny jokes that don't make sense (Why did the chicken cross the road? Because he thought it was funny!..ha!). My job isn't all fun and games, it has its fair share of drama and stress, but I love it.

I just got my official evaluation back from my assistant prinicpal..I of course stressed about it, but I did just fine. I scored proficient and exceeds in everything. But what really hit me was a comment that my assistant principal wrote.. "Ms. Anderson shows and gives compassion, understanding, patience, and acceptance. The students thrive because of the qualities Mrs. Anderson possess." I really appreciate her saying this. In a low moment of "I REALLY don't want to leave my baby" I read this comment and was reminded of how much I love my job and my 6 and 7 year old babies and why I do what I do. So thanks to Ranesia for that much needed, wonderful reminder.

I also received a Christmas card from MY first grade teacher whom I've kept in touch with over the years. You can read about her in THIS blog.)
She also included a hand written message that also reminded me how much I love teaching and again, why I chose to be a teacher. Along with her words, I had numerous family and friends give me words of encouragement about heading back to work..and I couldn't have done it without them. I really couldn't.

Elizabeth has been doing well with Missy, her babysitter. She's adjusting to being somewhere else during the day and is falling in love with Missy. We were really blessed to find somebody who takes amazing care of our daughter. I hate leaving her in the mornings but LOVE picking her up in the afternoons because she always has a big smile waiting for me. I know she won't remember these days that I'm spending so much time away from her and our hope is that the days that she CAN remember...I'll be there for.

So...this blog is a little all over the place (and has NO pictures..sorry!!) But I guess what I'm saying is...I love my baby and I love my job. But there's no happy medium. I wish I can take Lizzie to work with me but I can't, so I'll make due in the meantime. The hours we have at home together I spend playing with her, holding her, feeding her so my blog has taken the back burner. She's asleep right now which is why I'm grabbing a few minutes to explain this to my faithful followers...all 3 of you! :) I'll be back soon..I have a long to do list of blogs I want to write, but in the meantime, just know I'm spending quality time with my baby and will be back soon. Have a wonderful week! :)

We love the Aggies!!!

2010-12-12T16:18:00.011-06:00

Yesterday we headed up to College Station because some family friends were throwing us a couple's baby shower. Yes, we've already had the baby, but that made it all the more fun! Everyone got to meet Elizabeth and we didn't have all of the attention on us!! Win win situation. :) We had a wonderful time at the shower and got lots of fun things for Elizabeth!! Of course I only came away with a couple of pictures...but they're cute ones!!! This is our friends' baby, Tyler. He and Elizabeth were fast friends...and he's a fast mover!! Already trying to hold her hand and put his hand on her leg! What what!! We're gonna have to watch out for him one day...so cute!!!!

After the shower we headed up to Reed Arena for the Aggie basketball game. We played #21 Washington and won 63-62. It was a good game and Lizzie had fun at her first Aggie basketball game! She even got her photo snapped with some of my favorite Aggies...

Here she is lounging with Aggie football coach, Mike Sherman

On the court after the game...she was exhausted and kept taking these odd 5 minute catnaps. I guess that's all she could get what with all the noise!

Jake, Lizzie and one of my favorite players, Nathan Walkup

Another of my favorites, BJ Holmes

He's obviously not one of Lizzie's favorites!

And from last year's team, Derrick Roland. We love the Aggies!!!!

TWO months!

2010-12-08T21:50:00.003-06:00

(Elizabeth and mommy after my first grade team Christmas party)

You know, people always tell me, "enjoy each moment with your baby because time flies by." I didn't really believe them, but have come to find out...it's true. I can't believe Elizabeth is already two months old!! At times I feel like she was just born and at other times I don't remember our family without her. She is such an integral part of our family!

Let's see what I can remember about this past month compared to her first one.

Elizabeth....

~is AMAZING at holding her head up!! She is SO strong. She has no problems holding up her head for extended periods of time and LOVES to do it. She'll do this on her tummy and especially when she's upright.

~is turning her head back and forth. I was holding her the other day and she started turning it left and right pretty fast, looking at things. It almost scared me because it seemed like she was freaking out...but she's just REALLY alert and aware of her surroundings.

~focuses on faces, ones she knows and ones she's meeting for the first time. She likes to stare!! We'll have to correct that one day....lol

~responds to sounds...she gets terrified at daddy's loud sneezes sometimes. Her scared cry is so sad!!

~talks and talks LOUD. She wants you to hear her and will get loud if you don't respond! Her favorite place to talk and play is her changing table..so funny and so cute!

~smiles in response to smiles...especially mine :) she also smiles as she drifts off to sleep or if you tickle her tummy or face or feet

~loves her hands still...she'll bring them together and clasp them (though this might be an accident!) and always wants them by her face

~LOVES to be swaddled...LOVES it. She'll go from screaming to sleeping in 5 seconds if she's swaddled

~rolls over from tummy to back to the left and right (she started this at 2 weeks actually, but it's continued)

~grasps fingers sometimes...but she still likes to have her hands open most of them time

~follows objects with her eyes...sometimes

~LOVES her panda on her bouncy seat..it's a toy that hangs above her and she'll stare and stare...I think because it's black and white?

~LOVES lights...again she'll stare and stare...we'll have to take her out to look at all the Christmas lights

~had her first road trip!! Up to Sherman to meet the family

~had her first Thanksgiving in College Station

~had her first set of shots and made it through like a champ

~was given a name and a blessing at church

So that's about all I can remember from this last month!!! We love you little Lizzie!

Elizabeth's Blessing Gown

2010-12-06T16:50:00.009-06:00

So I need my mom's help picking out a picture and instead of emailing her all of these I told her I'd post them here for her to help me. So here's a freebie blog for the rest of my readers too...nothing special, just a few pictures of Elizabeth in her blessing gown. :) And if you want to tell me which is your favorite, that'd be great, go ahead!!!

She was blessed in church this past Sunday so that will get a whole other post later on once I collect pictures from family. We love this sweet girl!!!

Thanksgiving

2010-11-30T13:43:00.011-06:00

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving at the Anderson home in College Station. We were able to stay for a few days and visit lot of family and friends and get LOTS of help with Elizabeth! It was nice to have the extra help. My sweet little girl takes after her mommy and has a bit of a temper and likes things her way. :) She's not fussy or anything, but if she wants something or you're not doing what she wants, she lets you know it!! It's so funny how we can already see her personality at less than 2 months old.

Elizabeth is so cute! She really is! I just love this sweet girl! She for some reason has grown to LOVE getting her diaper changed. It's when she talks the most, smiles the most, kicks her arms and legs the most, makes the funniest faces and is just plain happy. Here are her diaper changing photo shoot pictures from a couple of different times. Precious!

Her Thanksgiving bib is bigger than her!! :)

Had to throw this sweet one in there. She woke up to eat so I picked her up and sat back down in bed with her....and she conked out on me! Obviously she just wasn't quite ready...sleep is so much better!

So happy that we BTHO tu!! WHOOP!!!!!

Our family is coming down this weekend for Elizabeth's baby blessing. We are so looking forward to seeing everybody and sharing this special day together. Family is SUCH a blessing in our lives and it's not often that we all get to come together like this outside of holidays. To those out of towners that can't make it, we love you and will miss you! :)

Elizabeth Update...

2010-11-22T15:43:00.004-06:00

We took Elizabeth to the doctor on Friday. It was her six week birthday...six weeks has flown by!!

She weighs 8 lbs 13 oz (23 percentile)

She is 21 inches long (27 percentile)

Her head is 14.5 inches in circumference (31 percentile)

So yes, she's pretty small but she was two weeks early...and she's just my petite little girl!! The doctor did say her growth was perfect...and I agree considering at ther two week appointment she was in the 1 percentile for head circumference! Way to GROW girl!!

Elizabeth went ahead and got her two month vaccines while we were there. She was a champ! She did the oral vaccine first and did not like it..she just let it sit in her throat and wouldn't swallow...but we finally got that down and then came the 5 vaccines..luckily they combine them into 3 shots. She of course screamed while getting them but calmed down as soon as I picked her up and calmed her down. I took it like a champ too. :) Something they didn't warn me about..taking off the band aids. They need to use different bandaids on babies or someone needs to invent some that don't hurt when you take them off!! I had to have Jake do it. But again as soon as they were off she was fine. Tough little girl!

We went for a walk after church on Sunday since it was a nice day (yes, we're still having 70 degree weather in Texas in November..actually today it was in the 80's...). Her stroller seat reclines all the way down so she can just lay in it instead of going through the hassle of strapping her into the carseat and then snapping the carseat in the stroller (and technically she should have been buckled in to the seat even though she was laying down...but she did just fine without it). Anyways..she just loved laying there looking up at the sky (as you can see in the picture). She had been fussy but calmed right down when we got moving. Great family outing!!

My, how times have changed...

2010-11-18T16:00:00.008-06:00

I obviously knew that having a baby would drastically change my life. It wasn't until I took a closer look at my latest reading material that I realized how much...

I'm an avid reader. I read ALL the time. I read everything. When I was younger my parents often caught me reading while I ate, while I brushed my teeth, while I fixed my hair, while I was in the bathtub, etc....And I won't lie and say any of that has stopped! I read books once...and then again and again until I get a new book to read. So it goes without saying that when I found out I was having a baby I wanted to read the latest and greatest baby books. Let's just say my nightstand used to hold books like....

And now holds books like the following....

I've heard mixed reviews about all of these books, people either swear by them or hate them with a passion. But isn't that the truth with any book? So since I love to read, I'll read them and let you know what I think. I'm also reading "The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding" but didn't post the picture since I'm not sure my readers wanted to see the cover art. :) Or did you even really want to know that I'm reading that?!

My emails have changed too...daily emails for baby coupons and updates from various baby websites have replaced everything else. I could go on and on with all the things that have changed really, but if you're a mom, you know the list by heart. And can agree with me when I say....

it's totally worth it.

I love my sweet girl even more than she loves her bath time! :)

One month? Really??

2010-11-08T12:32:00.003-06:00

Happy 1 month birthday to my sweet little girl! I can't believe a month has gone by already. Time has flown. Elizabeth is so precious and we just count our blessings every day and thank our heavenly father for such a sweet daughter. We love her so much!

One month happenings:
Elizabeth..
-loves tummy time and is able to hold her head up and turn it from side to side
-rolls over from her tummy to her back, can go both ways (so strong!)
-likes to lie on her side or tummy best...but we make her sleep on her back :)
-nurses like a pro, so proud of her :)
-is happier to be held upright rather than on her back...she loves to look around and will fall asleep sitting straight up!
-is very alert, responds to loud noises
-is starting to focus her eyes more on objects, especially mommy and daddy and the lights/toys on her play mat or the TV
-kicks her feet and flails her arms around ALL the time...she's an active little one!
-is NOT sleeping through the night, haha...as nice as that would be! She sleeps for 2-3 hours at a time right now
-is getting bigger every day but is still so tiny! At her last dr appt she weighed 6 lbs 11 oz (2 weeks old)...I'm estimating she's around 7.5-8 lbs now? Not sure...
-loves to be held, sung to and hear mommy play the piano. She also loves her bouncy chair, swing and playmat/gym
-went on her first real public outing...lunch with mommy and daddy and their friends. I've only taken her to the doctor or for drives. I'm so cautious with her, don't want any germs near my baby! :)
-enjoys her bath time! Her eyes get so big as she looks around trying to figure out what's going on!
-makes the cutest little cooing sounds and has the funniest facial expressions. I refuse to say it's just gas! My little girl has a personality!
-likes to smile...but hasn't smiled with eye contact yet
-squeals and stretches when she is starting to wake up..so funny and cute. She throws her little head back and just stretches so big...LOVE IT!
-has different cries for different problems

That's all I can really think of right now...It's been a whirlwind of a month. We've had our bumps in the road of course, it hasn't all been fun and games but overall she has been such a good baby. Like any baby she switches between happy, fussy, sleepy, alert at the drop of a hat. I told my mom it would be nice if babies came with an instructional manual or a flow chart that told you what was wrong. I can recognize her different cries which helps A LOT. Our lives have changed drastically but we love our sweet little Lizzie and can't imagine life without her. Here's to month #2!

I just don't have the time to upload pictures. Elizabeth has been awake for most of the day only taking short naps so just typing this blog has taken me all day!! Click on the link below for my updated Facebook photo album. The first pictures are the old ones from when she was born the newer ones are at the end. Enjoy!

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=3138716&id=8343491&l=453b42a1ac

More pictures...

2010-11-02T10:16:00.003-05:00

Same link as last time, just with more pictures!! Kendra sent us the link to all 200+ photos that she took of Elizabeth but here are a few of the best ones that she posted to her blog...

http://www.kendramartinphotographyblog.com/?p=1293

If you ever need a photographer in the Houston area she's a GREAT one!

Newborn Pictures...

2010-10-29T11:18:00.001-05:00

Last Friday on Elizabeth's two week birthday we had a photographer come to our home to take some newborn pictures of Elizabeth. It will be a couple of more weeks before we get them all back but here is a link to the sneak peak pictures she posted...

http://www.kendramartinphotographyblog.com/?p=1321

Blessed!!

2010-10-19T08:11:00.002-05:00

There is no other way to describe it, our family is absolutely blessed.

I may have had a rough pregnancy (and it really wasn't THAT bad...but bad enough!) but labor and delivery was smooth as can be..it was almost surreal. So here's our story...and it may be TMI (too much info) if you aren't my family...so read on with caution! :) If you're looking for pictures, either check out my facebook album if we're friends, or click on the link at the end of the post.

Thursday, October 7: I was lying on the sofa watching our Thursday night comedies with Jake when I felt like I had quite possibly wet my pants...which let's face it, at 38 weeks pregnant can totally happen at any minute with a baby sitting down so low. Of course, part of me was thinking, that could actually be my water leaking couldn't it? But no..I was so in denial! I had absolutely no pain and it didn't feel like my water had broken, at least not all the way. We debated about what to do and I decided to just monitor it over night and call the doctor in the morning.

Friday, October 8: I woke up and got ready and went to school. I had lots of things to do that morning with the kids, spelling test, fast facts, math work, etc...I came up with a whole list of things to do besides go to the hospital. (Awful, I know. But if I really thought I was in labor, or that my baby was in jeopardy I would have gone immediately.) I was still pain free but I did call my doctor about 10:30. They said it sounded like my water had started leaking and to go ahead and go to the hospital to get it checked and possibly have the baby. I called Jake and he rushed up to the school (and I mean rushed...flashers on, 60 mph...he WANTED to get pulled over, figuring he'd have a great excuse!). I notified everyone on my team as well as admin and they took care of my kids and Jake and I left for the hospital.
11:30 - We arrived at the hospital and after a few quick tests were told my water had broken but not all the way but enough to admit me and have a baby soon! We called our parents...my poor mom and dad had already gone home to get started packing and were on the road by 12:15...it's a 5 hour drive down to Houston and we had no idea how long we had. They moved me to a delivery room, got us comfortable and called in the doctor. My doctor wasn't on call so her associate came in to check me, broke my water the rest of the way and said I was at a 4 and to start the Pitocin. I had still been pain free up to now but once the pitocin started, so did the contractions (duh, that's how it's supposed to work!). I had the symptoms of endometriosis before I got pregnant so I've experience cramps like no other before. So the contractions were painful but bareable at first. The nurse offered the epidural but I told her I'd wait just a little longer. A little longer was about 20 minutes! They started getting worse so they called in my epidural and I was soon doing better...kind of. It only numbed the right side of my body for some reason. I could feel everything on my left side. So they had to bring back the anesthesiologist to administer more medicine and it was almost immediate comfort. It had been pretty weird to feel contractions on only one side. One of the side effects of the medicine is uncontrollable shaking...which started pretty quickly. At this point, I'm not too sure what time it was, maybe 3 or 4ish. I was covered up with lots of blankets with Jake holding me, shaking shaking shaking. I wasn't cold, just shivery. Another weird feeling. The nurses and doctor knew I really wanted to wait for my mom. Around 3 the doctor checked and I was a 5 and she predicted I would deliver around 7 or 8 which would be perfect. But I just started moving so quickly next thing we knew I was an 8 and the baby was just sliding her way down the birth canal. They stopped the pitocin to slow things down for my mom to have time to arrive and never told me when I got to a 10 so I wouldn't freak out. Around 4:45 we started doing a few practice pushes but the nurse had me stop because Elizabeth was just so ready. My mom and dad got to the hospital at 5:02, the nurses cheering her on as she rushed into the room with the doctor just in time to start pushing and 15 minutes later at 5:17, Elizabeth Megyn was born. (To read how we chose her name, click here.) Talk about a fast, easy delivery! (And they told me it was probably fast and easy because I hadn't come in the night before...HA!)

When she was born I got to hold her for a few seconds while Jake cut her umbilical cord and then he followed her around as she was cleaned up and checked out. Forget me!! Even my mom drifted over to her while the doctors took care of me...Liz already had everyone smitten! Jake brought her over to me a few minutes later and she was so content, not crying, just staring around with her big bright eyes..it was amazing. We got to hold her and be with her for a little more than an hour before they came to take her to the nursery for all the newborn exams and everything. We tried breastfeeding and she did really well and we all got to hold her for a little bit (we all being me, Jake, my parents and Jake's mom). When they took her to the nursery, I was awake and alert, eating dinner, talking on the phone, visiting with my parents...I still can't believe how great I felt. The only bad thing was I felt like I was on a boat from the epidural. They moved me to a postpartum room around 9:00 and brought Elizabeth back to try eating again. She did really well and my parents decided to go ahead and go since we were all doing so good.

So to summarize our next few days in the hospital...we had lots of family visitors come meet Elizabeth, she continued to do well at learning to breastfeed, she passed all her newborn tests, met the pediatrician who gave her flying colors on her exam, slept in the nursery at night except for eating time and I spent as much time as I could resting and recovering. We were released on Sunday around noon and have been enjoying being home ever since. We are all doing good, I'm sleep deprived of course, but we expected that. Jake's been great..he's picked up my slack around the house and is wonderful with Elizabeth. He watches her after I feed her if she's still awake so I can sleep and he has some kind of calming influence over her when she cries. She loves her daddy! We love her too and feel so blessed to have such a sweet baby girl that our father in heaven has given to us and we couldn't be happier. We've had our rough moments of course, but overall I feel so blessed.

Thank you to those of you who have kept us in your prayers, brought us meals and goodies and gifts, called, texted or facebooked us with well wishes and come to visit us. We really appreciate it. A big thank you to Jake's mom for working on Elizabeth's nursery and a big thank you to my parents for staying with us for the first week...we couldn't have done it without you.

Click on the link below to see pictures of Elizabeth (if we're friends on facebook, this is just a link to my facebook album).

Pictures of Elizabeth Megyn Anderson

Elizabeth Megyn Anderson....HERE!

2010-10-13T14:26:00.003-05:00

Well it was two weeks early, but little Lizzie decided to arrive sooner rather than later.

Elizabeth Megyn Anderson was born at 5:17pm on Friday, October 8. She was 6 lbs 3 oz and 19 inches long. Labor and delivery were both fast without any complications and mommy and baby are both doing fine. Elizabeth is precious and so beautiful. We feel absolutely blessed and there are no words to describe how much love we feel for this sweet little daughter of God.

More pictures and info to come later...but right now, momma is living by the rule, "sleep while baby sleeps!"

Little Chloe Madison....

2010-10-07T20:07:00.004-05:00

It's hard to believe Chloe is almost 3 weeks old!! I hate that I can't see or hold her but pictures do suffice I guess. Both mommy and baby are doing well and are just trying to get adjusted to a whole new world....literally! Here are some sweet pictures of my little niece.

I'm so excited that Elizabeth will have a cousin that's just a few weeks older than her and I hope they can be good friends despite not living in the same town. I've learned a TON in the past few weeks from Brooke's experiences and while I do know that every pregnancy, delivery and baby is different, I do feel more prepared about what to expect. I honestly believe Lizzie is coming early so I'm anxiously trying to make sure everything is completely ready for her so when she does come, I can focus on her and not worry about other things. Call me crazy but I've washed every piece of her clothing plus her blankets, burp rags, towels, wash cloths...pretty much anything that will touch her body. You just never know what kind of germs or chemicals are on those things and I didn't want them touching my fragile little baby's body. So that was a huge load off. Kathy is finishing up the nursery for us, though Elizabeth won't need it for a while of course. I still have not packed my hospital bags completely....I think that as soon as I do have them ready to go Elizabeth will come so subconsciously I keep putting it off. :) We are ready for her to arrive but are pretty nervous at the same time! I've finished all but 2 of my parent-teacher conferences but other than that things are ready at school for me to leave and my AMAZING long term sub to start. Lizzie is full term and kicking and punching to get out so I say bring it on, we're ready!!! Especially momma...I'm definitely huge, uncomfortable, sleep deprived, and totally over being pregnant. I'll post some pictures tomorrow because I feel like I've grown a ton just in the past two weeks alone. Check back later!

What 36 weeks pregnant looks like

2010-09-25T07:38:00.003-05:00

...on me at least:

In front of Elizabeth's crib...it's full of stuffed animals and toys right now...when she's finally ready for it in a few months we'll empty it out for her. But for now, her toys need a home! And I was always the little girl who gave every stuffed animal and doll a name and a home. So why change now?!

View from the front

And the back....I'm still squeezing myself into my size Medium 1st grade class t shirt. :) We picked out paint for the room last night and will get it finished next week. I know, we're so behind. We just bought our car seat a couple of nights ago! :)

So it's been a long 36 weeks I'm not going to lie. I've had the swine flu, 5ish months of morning sickness, I just now am getting more of an appetite, though I still can't eat certain things, I've NEVER had any of that pregnancy energy people says comes along, even nesting really hasn't happened for me. I've had extremely bad back pain, especially after being in my first car accident ever...which caused me to have my first hospital stay ever too. I no longer sleep at night, but thankfully somehow have the energy to teach my sweet little first graders the next day. I've had to move into the guest bedroom for 2 reasons: 1, I've started SNORING of all things and combine that with my constant tossing and turning, and Jake being a light sleeper and..well at least one of us should be sleeping right? 2, My back doesn't like our bed, so I'm sleeping in the harder bed in the guest bedroom and that has worked wonders. I can honestly say there's probably not a single pregnancy symptom/side effect that I haven't experienced. But anyways really, whoever said pregnancy was easy? Totally worth it right?! We are so excited to make it through these next few weeks and meet our precious little girl. We are so blessed and fortunate to be able to provide a good home for Elizabeth and will be the best parents we can be as we raise our first daughter. Life truly is good!

Disclaimer: I promise I'm not complaining about being pregnant. I wouldn't trade this experience for the world. But people ask how I'm doing....and this is the honest answer!

Is it time yet?!

2010-09-24T03:21:00.006-05:00

36 weeks down, really?! Really?! I'm pretty sure it was just a couple of months ago that we found out about Elizabeth. But no...when I went to the doctor this week it became obvious that this baby is coming soon, ready or not! I'm 36 weeks pregnant, have a 5 1/2 pound baby inside of me (she's a petite little thing!) with her head down pretty low, ready to go. I've had quite a few Braxton Hicks contractions which have put me at 1.5 cm dilated. SO like I said...our little one is coming sooner, rather that later. It's really starting to become a lot more real and we are busily preparing for her arrival, making sure everything is ready to go. Words can not describe how excited Jake and I are for Elizabeth to get here.

I had a baby shower at school yesterday....two girls are getting married and I'm having a baby, all in October so we had a triple shower so people didn't have to stay late after school 3 different times (because honestly, what teacher wants to do that?!) So that explains the cake...so cute!

It was fun and I got lots of fun things! :)

In other news, my little niece Chloe was born on September 19th. Brooke had an easy pregnancy and a tough delivery...I'm hoping that means my rough pregnancy = an easy delivery. One can hope right?! Here are some pictures I've been sent so far...I won't get to see this sweet girl for a couple of months, sad right?!
I honestly can't tell yet who she looks like. They were released from the hospital last night so hopefully their first night at home went well! :)

Well it's almost 4am so I should probably try to catch a few more hours of sleep before school. No, I don't know what I'm doing awake at 4am other than the fact that insomnia has settled in and I just can't sleep. Thank you pregnancy!

2010-08-25T18:50:00.003-05:00

32 weeks down, 8(ish) more weeks to go! Quick update...

After 5 months of being ridiculously sick all the time, I finally started feeling better around week 24. (Thanks to the Prima Bella bracelet I started wearing, but that's a whole other post I think I've already done.) For the past couple of months I've felt pretty good but still been tired ALL the time. Lovely. I got in as much rest as I could before I started back to school last week and amazingly enough I've been feeling really good. I'm tired of course but I FEEL good and have enough energy to get all of my work and teaching done. So now when people ask me "how are you feeling?" I can honestly answer "Good!" with a smile and mean it. And I answer that question A LOT!

So as good as I can say I've been feeling I still swear that if there is a pregnancy symptom out there to have, I've had it. All of them! But I know this sweet little baby is so worth it so I try to only complain to Jake and/or my mom. Thanks you two :)

So here's my 32 week picture....PLEASE keep in mind that this is after a long day of teaching 18 6 year olds, a doctors appointment AND a hospital appointment...so I look pretty tired! :)

And it was wild Wednesday at school so my shirt was just perfect. Thanks mom! :)

If I had $1 for every time someone told me how small my belly looks I'd be so rich. It must be the way I'm carrying her because nobody believes I'm as far along as I am. My doctor laughed when I told her this and assured me I'm measuring just fine and not to worry. She gave me my "prenatal passport" today that has literally ALL of my medical information from each prenatal visit listed on it in case I go into labor and can't make it to my hospital. According to that I've gained 19 pounds over the past 32 weeks which I'm happy with. The doctor assured me my weight gain looks good, blood pressure looks good, labs look good, heartbeat sounds good, measurements are right on schedule etc, etc...Long story short, everything is just fine! I am slightly anemic so I have to take iron for that. But things are progressing well so Jake and I have 2 months to finish preparing for this baby....so exciting!

I'll leave you with these pictures of Allee. She is a mess. Her latest favorite thing to do is get out of our broken fence, run around the big field behind our house and when she gets tired and hot, run along to the end of the fence like, circle back through the neighborhood, and find our house. She is one smart girl to be able to make it through the neighborhood back to our house. A couple of times we haven't even realized she's gotten out and open the front door to go somewhere and in she trots, nonchalant, acting like we can't see her. She'll head right to the bathroom or laundry room and sit down like she hasn't done anything wrong and wait for us to come close the door. Needless to say we've rigged the fence. Oh and she got a tick the other night that Jake had to pull out. I was so sad for her and could hardly stand to hold her head. She was whimpering and crying but we did get it out. Poor thing!

First day of school!

2010-08-23T17:54:00.013-05:00

Well it's that time of year again! School is back in session and I'm already exhausted. I went back last week and was kept super busy with staff development and working on my classroom. I met my kiddos on Thursday night...I only have 18 and they seem to be a pretty good group. But we'll see! So to kick off the new year I thought I'd post some pictures of my home away from home...because this is truly where I spend all of my time if I'm not at home. And I can't decide if I like that or not. :) I had a great first day of school and am looking forward to 176 more!

Classroom library

All About Me Bulletin Board

Our wonderful work bulletin board

Station chart, word work chart, stations....

Calendar

Writing station

Word Wall

"Our Precious Elizabeth"...

2010-08-15T15:26:00.017-05:00

...is what the ultrasound tech wrote at the top of Elizabeth's first pictures. :) On Friday the 13th Jake and I went to our 3D/4D ultrasound to see little Elizabeth. We had originally planned on going to the ultrasound place at my doctor's office but decided to try a place in Sugarland instead and we are so glad we did! Not only was it only $99 but the tech acted like he was just as excited as we were and worked so hard to get us some good pictures and video. Our 20 minute session lasted closer to 45 minutes and we came away with 28 minutes in video and about 50 pictures to call our own. I would highly recommend this place to anyone in the Houston area. Thanks to Kellye and Sean for recommending it to us!!

It was so fun to see this little cutie. We had my mom and dad and Jake's mom with us and it was nice to experience this all together. She was a bit stubborn...or maybe just out of room because she had both arms and legs up by her face and would often hide behind them. She also had the umbilical cord up by her face and would try to hide behind that as well. Combine that with being squished against my tummy and it's a miracle we got as many pictures of her as we did! But we were able to reposition her to get some good shots of her little face. Her heartbeat was good, 153 bpm, she's still a girl (YAY) and she's measuring a week earlier than my due date...which doesn't surprise me since I've thought I was due a week earlier than the first ultrasound said anyways. So enjoy these cute little pictures of our precious Elizabeth!

Her left foot

She's got some chubby cheeks!

Heart

Definitely a girl!

Left hand up in front of her face saying no more pictures!

Jake asked the ultrasound tech if she had any hair yet, and sure enough she does!

All of those limbs up in her face! She is flexible!

Big yawn!

One last great picture...See you soon Lizzie!

Now I know everybody has different opinions of these pictures. We LOVED them...but I understand they can look a bit odd and let's just say it...creepy. She does look a little distorted from being smashed against my uterine wall so don't worry...she'll be a beautiful, normal looking baby when she arrives. I hope! :)

When I Grow Up...

2010-08-11T18:03:00.002-05:00

It's that time!!! Back to school activities are in full swing. Teachers are preparing their classrooms and starting teacher preparation days, kids and parents are out buying new clothes and school supplies....I love this time of year! And I get to experience every year...because I'm a teacher (and soon to be mom of course!).

Let me start by saying I LOVE my job. Of course it has its ups and downs and I'd be lying if I said that I haven't complained about it a few times. No job is 100% perfect right? However, I do love what I do. I have a passion for teaching, especially for first grade. I love love love teaching first grade. It's so amazing to see the progress these little six year olds make over the 9ish months that I have them in my classroom. I love seeing children learn to read, discover new things and grow physically as well. I get attached to my babies every year but love to promote them on to second grade to continue to see them grow. (I know, I talk like I've been teaching for years...)

So our first grade team is having our first meeting tomorrow and our team leader asked a little task of us. She asked us to come up with 4 things/events/people that inspired us to become teachers and gave us a passion for education/educating. I put some thought into it and am ready to share tomorrow...but I'd thought I'd share here as well....

1. My first grade teacher, Muriel Johnson. She is my all time favorite teacher out of all the amazing teachers that I've had throughout my life. She was loving, kind and truly cared about EACH student. She helped me grow and develop during my first grade year and did so with a gentle yet firm presence that every first grader needs. She retired that year (I guess we did her in!!) and I kind of lost touch with her after that. Then when I was a Senior about to graduate high school, I received a packet in the mail from her, full of newspaper clippings of articles about me or pictures of me from the newspaper that she had saved and collected from when I was 7 to when I was 17. Everything from cheerleading, academic achievements, piano recitals, SHS leadership activities right down to the time I played Piglet in the community theater's production of Winnie the Pooh. She also enclosed a special letter that I will never forget...all of which I still have of course. She was an amazing teacher who not only cared about me for that one year I was in her class but for my entire lifetime. I got to see her a few weeks ago and we sat down and had a nice chat. She is as wonderful and beautiful as she was 17 years ago. I have always tried to be a teacher like her and touch the lives of my students.

2. Teaching Interns, SHS. I had always wanted to be a pediatrician growing up. Always. Never changed my mind. Until my Junior year of high school. I began to realize that while I did love helping children and working with children, the passion to be a doctor just wasn't there. So during my senior year I enrolled in the teaching interns program at my high school. And it was there that I found my calling. I worked for a few months with a Kindergarten class and learned a lot...I learned that being a teacher is demanding yet rewarding. But I wasn't sold just yet. Then I worked in a first grade classroom with Carrie Wooten. That's what did it for me. Carrie let me interact with the kids, teach them, help them, tutor them and do everything I could to learn more about what it means to be a teacher. She is also an amazing teacher and by the end of the year I knew that being a teacher is my calling. I fell in love with first graders that year, mainly because I was amazed about how much they grew and changed academically and physically during such a short, short time. And I loved being a small part of that.

3. Student Teaching. So I went off to A&M, enrolled in education classes and began my work toward my education degree. I LOVED my classes, enjoyed learning about all different aspects of teaching and children in general and was able to spend time in every grade level from K-5. I loved them all...but once again it was my time spent in a first grade teaching that intensified my love of first grade. The teacher I had originally been placed with was just not the best, most stable teacher and actually wound up quitting 1/2 way through my time at that school. So the principal asked a different first grade teacher if she would mind taking me as her student teacher (this all happened before I started student teaching so I didn't know about it). The teacher I was placed with at the request of the principal had a really tough class, lots of different problems and she actually specifically asked to NOT have a student teacher. However she had been teaching for 30 years and had a lot of knowledge to share with a young teacher like me, so she agreed. And I am SO SO grateful for willingness to take me. I learned more that year about children and their learning skills then I ever could have in a classroom at A&M. My classroom management skills developed A LOT that year as I was forced to deal with children that had learning disabilities, ADD/ADHD, behavior/emotional disorders, etc.... none of which I had ever dealt with before. My mentor teacher helped me a lot that year and I learned more from my 12 weeks of student teaching that I learned in my 3 years at A&M. I'll never forget my time student teaching with that class. I loved them and loved teaching them and loved the responsibilities I was able to take on as their teacher, but I also learned that teaching can be very trying...and how to deal with that fact.

4. My family. Education in in my genes. Let me make a list for you:
People in my family who are teachers/were teachers/work at schools:
Mom-teaches high school
Brooke-my sister, taught 4th grade
Amanda-my cousin and best friend, teaches 3rd grade
Grandma Little-teaches 1st grade
Michele-my cousin, teaches Kindergarten (I think!)
Janna-my aunt, secretary at an elementary school...the school wouldn't run right without her!
Jessica-my cousin, teacher's aide at an elementary school
Karli-my sister in law, teaches 6th grade
Kristin-my sister in law, teaches...3rd grade? I think?!
Grandpa Wertz-taught music and violin

So there you have it...my top 4 inspirations for going into education. I love my job and wouldn't trade it for another, higher paying profession. That's not why I'm in it. Now, I would LOVE to be able to stay home with Elizabeth when she is born, but that's just not possible for our family's situation. Yes I know it will be hard to leave Elizabeth, yes I wish I could stay home with her, but I can't this year and I'm okay with that, because I'm going to a job that I love. I'm grateful for the talents the Lord has blessed me with that help me be the best teacher I can be and I know the things I've learned from being a teacher will also help me be a good mom. I know I am in the right profession, at the right school, in the right grade and working with the right kids who need me. And I need them..their hugs, their smiles and their unconditional love. I love being a first grade teacher!

Three years...

2010-07-29T08:55:00.024-05:00

July 21st was our 3 year anniversary. It's been a wonderful 3 years of marraige and I wouldn't trade any of our moments and memories for anything. I'm sure I've done a post similar to this before, but this is what you get when I wake up early and The Price is Right isn't on yet. :)

Jake and I met on November 7, 2005 in College Station while we were both attending A&M (and of course, his family lives there too). We were at our Bishops's house for Family Home Evening and he had just gotten home from his mission to Argentina. He came over to my house that night and after that, we started hanging out a lot more. Here is what we've been up to since then...

We had our first Valentines Day together in '06.

We went on many, many fun filled dates (yes, we really did used to be that skinny)

Jake came to Sherman to visit me when I would go home for holidays and summer. We were in love and just couldn't spend much time apart. :) (mushy mushy, I know)

Jake proposed to me exactly one year after we met, November 7, 2006. Perfect night!

We were married in the Dallas temple for time and all eternity on July 21, 2007. Another perfect day! :)

We honeymooned in the Caribbean...and can't wait to go back!

We've attended dozens of Aggie events, one of our favorite things to do together

We both got our Aggie rings

We've grown up a bit...

We traveled to Buenos Aires, Argentina and met some amazing families that I will never forget

Jake taught me how to fish and shoot a gun, much to my mom's dismay

We adopted a dog (or rather, I adopted a dog and then called Jake to ask permission)

We sent my brother off to San Diego for 2 years on a mission...and Jake has listened to me whine and cry about him being gone and me not being able to talk to him. :) I'd like to blame part of that whining and crying on pregnancy hormones though.

After 2 apartments, 1 house and about 3 years of renting, we built our first home and LOVE IT!

We're having a baby girl! Now if that's not us growing up, I don't know what is!

We still haven't decided between super excited, super nervous, super scared...or all of the above! :)

It's been a perfect 3 years...or almost 5 really if you count from when we met. I love Jacob and am very grateful for him and his ability to care for me, be patient with me and love me back. He really is my soul mate (who else would gain pregnancy weight with me and have pregnancy symptoms with me right?!) and I don't know what I'd do or where I'd be without him. Jake will be a wonderful daddy and we are both looking forward to starting this next chapter of our lives together with little Elizabeth. Wish us luck!

By request....

2010-07-15T10:38:00.004-05:00

Here is what we've decided for Elizabeth's room....I actually found it for a steal on overstock.com and was REALLY happy with it when it arrived and I got it all out of the box. It's super soft and the colors are perfect. Now, any suggestions for what we should do with her nursery?! I really like wainscoting so that's a thought, but I have no decisions yet on paint. My uncle is a contractor and an amazing painter so I may steal him for a day and get his input. SOOO exciting!

When it arrived I couldn't even take it to Elizabeth's room to open the box. I opened it right in the front entry way and took a picture to send to Jake, my mom and my sister. So here's that picture...

And here's the picture from the official website. I got a 12 piece set on my overstock.com deal: bumper, blanket, crib skirt, crib sheet, pillow, diaper stacker, toy hanger, 3 wall hangings and 2 valances. So basically everything you see in the picture below except for the mobile and lampshade.

Free time = Blog time

2010-07-14T14:22:00.003-05:00

Time for an update...yikes! Let's pull out the calendar and see what we've been up to...

June 19: My best friend got married! I am so excited that Lauren and Jon are married and will spend the rest of their lives together. They are the perfect, cutest couple...you know, one of those couples that is so cute and perfect and in love that you want to hate them but you can't because they're the nicest most generous people ever? That's them. And that's why I'm so lucky to have them in my life. Lauren and I have been friends since elementary school and have been through a lot together over the years and I look forward to sharing a lot more memories over the coming years. :) Love you lots Lauren Elizabeth, thanks for letting me be a part of your special day!

June 21: We closed on our house! It was a simple, easy process aside from all of the millions of times we had to sign our names. We took some pictures but I think they're on my other laptop. We started moving in that day and continued moving over the next three days with the help of my wonderful cousin Ashton who was staying with us, men from our church and some GREAT friends who we owe big time! :)

June 25: We left for our Utah roadtrip! Jake and I have never taken a real road trip together. The longest we've driven is the 5 hours up to Sherman...other than that, we fly. So we thought we'd see if we could save some money by driving our way up to Utah for the Anderson family reunion. It made for an interesting experience, but one that we enjoyed. We got hotels the old fashioned way, by calling when we got tired and were ready to stop, which made for some interesting stays as well! We traveled Friday, Saturday and arrived in Utah on Sunday. We stayed with some friends Sunday-Wednesday and just relaxed and enjoyed catching up with them. We went up to Park City on Wednesday for the Anderson family reunion. We stayed in a beautiful condo and enjoyed spending time with family that we don't usually get to see. We did a lot of fun activities and got in some relaxation time too. The reunion ended on Saturday and we left Utah on Sunday. We spent the fourth of July in Aspen, CO at a condo there...it was so cold up in the mountains! They even predicted snow...which didn't happen. But it was crazy knowing we would be going from 40 degree weather to 90 degrees back in Texas. Yuck. Anyways, we made it back to Katy on Tuesday...to that wonderful 95 degrees and 100% humidity. Wow.

Since then we've just been working on the house and Jake's been catching up on work. My parents came to help us unpack and we got a lot done...thanks mom and dad (mainly mom!!) . My last big project is the garage. When we moved before our Utah vacation, we just threw a bunch of our boxes and junk in the garage. Now I need to go through it and see what can be thrown out, what needs to be unpacked and what needs to go in the attic. I tried to do this on my own while Jake is at work but quickly realized that unless I want this baby to arrive way too early, I need to take it easy. :) So I rest during the day and get little things done and use Jake's help when he's here with me. Hopefully I'm done in the next week or so.

When we moved houses, we also moved wards at church. We'd only been one Sunday and missed the next two while we were on vacation but that didn't stop them from asking me to accept a calling the second Sunday we were there! I'll be one of the CTR 5 teachers (teaching 4-5 year olds)...I'm excited. As nice as it would be to be in Relief Society to get to know the ladies my age, I love love love Primary and being with the kids. It's in my blood! :)

Baby update: Elizabeth is doing great! She is sooooooooo active which is sooooooo fun. :) At my last appointment the nurse asked if I was still feeling her move around and I said oh yes, she moves all of the time. Then when she was listening to the heartbeat with the Doppler she had to chase Elizabeth around my tummy to get her heartbeat. She realized I wasn't lying, she really does move a ton. Which is fun now, but will it really still be fun if she's this active as a toddler? Uh oh! :) I go back to the doctor at 30 weeks and will do my glucose test and also get our 3d/4d ultrasound. We're inviting our parents to this ultrasound and I'm so excited to get a good picture/video of our sweet little girl! I'm doing much better, not sick as much but still tired all of the time. I have a hard time sleeping at night and when I do sleep, I have the oddest dreams... Some are down right disturbing...like the one where the doctor delivered Elizabeth at 25 weeks so that we could see what she looked like and then put her back since it was too early for her to actually be born. On the bright side, she was a beautiful little girl in my dream! :)

So that's what we've been up to!! Instead of posting my pictures here, you can click on the link below to see pics from Lauren's wedding and our roadtrip. Now that we have Internet I'll do better at posting pictures here with updates for my wonderful grandparents who are my loyal readers! :) Love yall!

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2983272&id=8343491&l=3b05d80666

Elizabeth Megyn...

2010-06-21T17:33:00.002-05:00

I've been hesitant to share the name we chose for our baby girl with the world, simply because I have a slight commitment issue. I'm afraid if I commit to this name now, I'll not like it anymore when she comes. But I don't think that's going to happen. So to share a little bit about what/how we chose...

Her first name will be Elizabeth. I have loved the name Elizabeth since I was a little girl. We have Elizabeth's on both sides of the family so she'll have familial namesakes. I've known some pretty awesome girls named Elizabeth, including a little girl I babysat from 8 months old to 3 years old until I moved away. I loved that sweet little girl and she'll be a great namesake as well. And my best friend's middle name is Elizabeth so that's a plus as well :)

Her middle name will be Megyn. Megan Little is my cousin, 3 months younger than me. Unfortunately her time on this earth was very limited and she didn't live past birth. I've always felt very close to her, regardless of the fact that I never met her and I've always been very close to her dad, my uncle. They live in Missouri and when I was little I was an extremely shy little girl...but not with him. I would cry and cry when he left. So it's only fitting that I name my first little girl after my cousin Megan. I love her and can't wait to meet her some day.

We are so excited for Elizabeth to arrive. We thank our Heavenly Father for this sweet blessing every night and are so grateful for the opportunity we have to be parents to one of His children. October really can't get here soon enough!!!

Packing and Moving....

2010-06-14T19:16:00.003-05:00

Let me first say...I am SO ready to move. The house we are in now has been good to us over the past year and we are in a good neighborhood..but moving to a nicer neighborhood in a nicer part of town in a nice new house is definitely appealing.

HOWEVER. I hate packing. I hate moving. And doing those two things while I'm pregnant...I hate that too. Unfortunately my OCD complex kicks in and I refuse to let people help me (pack at least). Not my wonderful mother and sister who offered their help on numerous occassions, not the wonderful ladies at church who have offered, not even my wonderful husband (who I kick out of the house so I can pack alone). I like to do it my own way in my own time. And being pregnant, well, let's just say I take a LOT of time. Tonight for instance...I took 2 hours to pack 4 boxes. Mainly because I sit down every 5 minutes to rest. (Have I mentioned that that energy people promised me would come back in the 2nd trimester has in fact NOT come back?) Now when we move all the boxes and furniture from this house to the new one....I WILL require help there. Seeing as how I can't lift heavy things. Enter the nice men from church.....

After this move I. Am. Done. Let's recap my years since I graduated high school:

August 2005: Moved from Sherman to College Station

July 2007: Moved from my CS house to mine and Jake's first apartment (in CS)

August 2008: Moved from CS to Sherman to live with my parents (not a major move...but still)

December 2008: Moved the rest of our stuff from CS to our new apartment in Sherman (THIS was the major move)

June 2009: Moved from Sherman to Katy

June 2010: Moving from one house to another in Katy

Like I said. I'm done! So for the next couple of weeks I will be moving. Luckily it's just across town so we can move over a few days rather than all in one (which is ideal because I'm pregnant remember? Like I haven't mentioned that enough?). Then we head to Utah for a while to relax. When we get back it will be July and July is my "focus on baby stuff" month. DEFINITELY looking forward to this! :)

So we get our home inspected tomorrow and do our first walk, they go back and fix anything that needs to be fixed, we have our final walk and then we close next Monday or Tuesday. We officially move on Tuesday (provided closing goes through without a hitch) and will be completely moved in by Thursday. Just in time to leave for Utah on Saturday. Talk about stress! So worth it though. And my lovely parents are coming up next week to help us move and get settled. Soooooo even though the house is done and I do have recent pictures of it, I'm going to wait until we are settled and post the final pictures. Until then....

Happy Birthday Jake!!

2010-06-06T18:16:00.005-05:00

June 4th was Jake's 26th birthday. We both had to work that day, but it was an easy day for both of us. Jake's boss took us to lunch at Cheddars and then I finished up at school at 2:30 so we were able to spend the rest of the day together. We decided to head to Houston for the Astros game. We love going to the games...and I LOVE Minute Maid Park - mainly because it's got a roof and air conditioning! :) We played the Cubs and WON 3-1. We stayed for Friday Night Fireworks and had a blast just being together. We spent the rest of the night with some friends and then headed home. A simple, yet wonderful birthday. :)

The next day we had some friends and family come in to Katy for a party. We took everybody out to our new neighborhood to show them our 98% completed house and have a cookout by the pool. It was a windy day, but we had fun and enjoyed good food and good company. After eating we went back to our house to open presents and eat dessert. It was nice to be surrounded by our family and best friends for the day!

Not to go all sappy, but I am so lucky to have Jake in my life. He takes such good care of me (and believe me, I need a lot of taking care of!) and loves me unconditionally...even when my crazy hormones are making both of us crazy. He is truly my soul mate and the one I am supposed to spend eternity with. I am so grateful for him and his humor, personality and most of all, his love for me and our baby girl. He will be such a wonderful daddy soon and I definitely could not have wished for a better husband. I love you Jacob!!! :)

Latest ultrasounds...

2010-06-06T18:01:00.010-05:00

Baby girl Anderson is developing well and right on schedule. She is now 1/2 a pound (I know, huge right?!) and is very active! We saw all of her organs at our 20 week ultrasound and everything looks perfect. I'm doing well too, getting bigger every day it feels like. Unfortunately...all of this "You'll feel 100% better once the second trimester comes along" is not true for me. I'm still tired a lot (which probably has to do with being so busy at school too of course) and I'm still sick a lot. So my doctor had me try this brand new "prescription." It's called the PrimaBella and it's a "neuromodulation device" that you wear on your wrist to reduce the nausea and vomiting symptoms associated with pregnancy. I was a little leary of being shocked on the wrist every few seconds, but it's not bad at all. More of a tingling feeling, similar to the pins and needles feeling you get when your foot falls asleep. And after only two days, I swear by it. I have felt WONDERFUL for the past two days that I've worn it and have had the energy I need to get things done. I'm the office guinea pig, the band they gave me is a demo so I didn't have to pay for it and it's worked wonders...truly a blessing, honestly! After 20 weeks I needed that relief. Now if only food would start sounding better... :)

For more info.... www.primabellarx.com

Jake has been bugging me for weeks to take some pictures of my little belly. So I finally gave in and let him take these a couple of weeks ago. I was about 18 weeks in these... so there's really not that much to see!!

And here are the latest ultrasounds...sorry for the bluriness, they came from my phone. We don't have a monitor for our desktop right now so I can't use the scanner. :(

16 weeks - it's a girl!!!!

16 weeks - Female!!

16 weeks

20 weeks - we could quite possibly have a thumb sucker!

20 week profile shot

Happy Birthday Ross!!

2010-05-22T08:34:00.004-05:00

Happy Birthday to my wonderful brother Ross!! He turns 20 year old today and we can't even call to tell him Happy Birthday. He is serving his mission in San Diego for the next two years and while I am VERY proud of him, it's hard to not be able to call him and tell him Happy Birthday today. We've sent him lots of birthday wishes and gifts and he's not by himself so that's comforting. We talked to Ross on Mother's Day and told him happy early Birthday but it's just not the same! He'll get to call home again on Christmas and my Mimi pointed out that the next time we talk to him we'll have two little babies added to the family....crazy! I love my brother so much and am so proud of him and his decision to serve the Lord for the next two years. But I miss him a TON!!!

This is probably 4 or 5 years old...but always one of my favorites even though Ross is pulling his famous squinting face. He's always been so much taller than me!

You would THINK this one would be 4 or 5 years old what with me wearing that old letter jacket but it's actually this past Christmas, playing in the snow with Ross and Jake and Allee. I just grabbed the first warmest coat I could find in my parents' coat closet. :)

One month!!

2010-05-18T19:48:00.030-05:00

Jake and I swung by the house today to check up on the house...as we do quite often...and I snapped some good pictures of the progress. It's really coming along! We close in mid June and will be all moved in by the end of the month. So exciting!!! Then we can focus on Baby Girl Anderson....who still remains nameless for the time being. :)

View from the front door into the living room

View from the front door into the study...which was actually built to be a dining room but we don't need two dining rooms!

Study....we'll have to switch that light fixture out I think!

Living Room

Study/front door

View of kitchen from living room

Kitchen...I am in love with our choices for tile, cabinets and granite

This is the "breakfast room" which will just be our dining room

Hallway leading to the bedrooms and bathrooms

Utility Room

Our baby girl's room! :)

Guest bathroom

Spare bedroom

Master bedroom

Master bedroom

Master bedroom

Master bathroom

My nice long vanity

And Jake's smaller (yet taller than mine!)

Tub

Shower

Master bathroom

Our current backyard...one day in the far future Katy ISD will build a new high school and stadium on this land, but for now it will be so nice to not have any backyard neighbors.

Our actual backyard is pretty small but the yards on the sides of our house are huge

That's that! I love our house and am so excited to move in soon. The house we are in now has been great but it will be nice to be on the other side of town in a nice, new neighborhood in a nice, new house. One more month!!!

It's a .....

2010-05-10T19:28:00.008-05:00

GIRL!!!!

We are excited to announce that Baby Anderson is a SHE! Instead to saying "it" we can now say "she." LOVE it. We went to the doctor last Thursday afternoon...

I was so nervous for some reason! As you can tell in this picture that Jake insisted on taking! We didn't have to wait long and we headed back for the ultrasound. The tech took a while to show us the baby and listen to the heartbeat and then started pushing on my tummy to help her move into position. She had her legs up above her head with her arms raised up too...SO cute! She was moving her arms and legs and moving around...hard to believe she's only a few inches long! She finally put her little booty up in the air and the tech said "well, it's definitely a girl!" She pointed out how she could tell so definitively and we just stared at the screen for a while in awe. We watched the baby for a few more minutes before realizing this is REAL! We are having a baby girl! We are beyond excited for this little addition and it will be hard to wait for 5 more months to meet her! (No, we do not have a name announcement yet!)

Proud parents!

Jake can't decide if he's excited to have a little girl......

or terrified that her teenage years will be just like mine! Ha!

Baby girls are so much fun to shop for!! Thanks Mom and Brooke for these super cute sleepers and outfits!

We also received a video of the ultrasound....we put it on YouTube for family and friends to view...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5BXIL4dZXcE

More house...more baby...!

2010-05-02T20:16:00.003-05:00

I know that's all I blog about these days...house and baby, baby and house. But those are exciting things for us and just about all that we have going on! School is winding down for me which is nice because I can concentrate on the house and the baby. We find out on Thursday whether we are having a baby boy or baby girl. Our ultrasound tech's office is part of my doctor's office and both she and my doctor encouraged us to come in at 16 weeks for a gender screening. I asked her and my doctor over and over if they could really tell the gender at 16 weeks and they assured me they would do everything possible to find out. We'll get pictures and a video also. Then at 20 weeks we'll have the regular anatomy screening as well. So we'll get to see our baby two times in the next month...yay! Jake and I LOVE seeing that sweet little baby on the monitor...so special. We are so blessed and so excited to be parents soon!

House....finished with brick and finished with sheetrock! They are moving right along! I am too tired to post all of the pictures on here so here is a link to the photo album on facebook...

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2947242&id=8343491&l=45c6e4f18c