To the nunnery with you!

We had our first family vacation this past week. We went to Alton, Il to see Sr. Chiara make her first profession. It was a great time! Dave headed back to Lincoln on Tuesday while Eliza and I stuck back with the rest of the family at Karissa's house in Atchison until Saturday when we moved Austin into school at Benedictine. We had some definite family bonding time! I will let the pictures tell the rest of the story.

                                                     Ready to Go!

                                    Finally Eliza meets her namesake!

                                                The whole Family

                                Blessed with an incredible friendship!

Eliza met a new friend; a little boy who was 1 week younger than her.  She wasn't very interested. She must have been thinking about how much she wants to join the convent:)

She doesn't seem happy about her pre-determined vocation. In our defense it does say "per God's will" beneath. You can't see it because the skirt is covering it.

                     Loving the pool with Grandma and Grandpa

                     We had a wonderful picnic at the lake in Atchison

       We were visited by ducks. I love this picture (courtesy of Joe)


I forgot to have Dave leave the stroller behind, so we picked up a cheap $5 stroller at the thrift store. Karissa said she could recover it, no problem. 3 hours later....Tada! She did a great job. It turned out SOO cute!

                          Future Benedictine student? Gotta love the hat!

Dropping off my baby brother at school. Wow I feel old, and a little bit sad. At least he has 3 wonderful women to worry about him!
 

Videos

A couple new videos. First..the back scoot.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O9pWfl-LRbc

Second, the new noise Eliza discovered. A little creepy and Exorcist sounding in my opinion, but still hilarious. (She does it the loudest right before the end of the video)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tnIGiCmCGy0

Life is Good

Sunday was Dave's Birthday. I got him the X-box game he has been wanting (a decision I've regretted since). And Eliza picked out a really cool gift for him too. As you can see, they both really enjoyed it.

                              Eliza's Wonderful pick for Dad

   Dad excitedly explaining the types of construction machines to Eliza

It was truly priceless watching them read this book together. Dave would name the machine and Eliza would look at the picture and laugh and smile. I think they have read it about 10 times already :) Of course, Dave had to point out that the book was titled incorrectly. It's called "Diggers" when apparently only 1 of the machines in the book actually digs. Haha. That's Dave for ya. But I must say, Eliza really knows what she's doing this early on by picking Dad a gift that SHE can enjoy too :)

A couple weeks ago, we went to our first county fair in Wahoo. There was a big (very LONG) parade before the fair. They threw out a lot of candy for the big kids. I wondered how Eliza would like it. But, as you can see, she could care less. She was too concerned about chewing on her book.

I decided to try a Baby Einstein video on YouTube to see what Eliza would think of it . She LOVED it! She laughed and kicked her legs at her favorite parts.  I think that I need to buy her a couple, but for now we'll just wach the free videos.

                                          Enjoying Baby Neptune

On Saturday, we leave for Alton, Illinois to attend Sr. Chiara's (Liz's) first profession. This will be our first FAMILY vacation with Miss Eliza and I cannot wait for Eliza to meet her namesake for the first time! I am sure I will have LOTS of pictures to post after the trip.

House Update: After weeks of battling with the contractor who poured the basement walls(he didn't want to redo them even though they needed it desperately....he decided to pour them in the 70 mph rainstorm) we are finally back on track! Now its just getting the floor done and then FINALLY time for framing. The whole ordeal put us 3 weeks behind schedule! Uhhhh!

Sit girl, Sit.

Miss Eliza is finally sitting up on her own. She loves it and is so proud of herself for being able to do so. Time flies by way too quickly. Before we know it, she is going to be crawling. Ahhh!!!  

     First time sitting up. (I may have been a bit more excited than she was.) Haha.

Instead of trying to crawl, she's been scooting around on her back. Its hilarious to watch. The other day, I was sitting here on the computer while she sat and played with a couple toys. I turn around about 2 minutes later to see that she had scooted all the way across the room, right underneath the table. She just was laying under there, with her feet up, chilling out. I had to grab the camera and snap a shot cause she was just too cute to pass up. This is now strangely her new favorite place to scoot to. Haha. 

Eliza loves falling over backward on her Boppy pillow. As you can see in the picture, she falls back and leans over it and just laughs and laughs. She thinks it is the funniest thing ever. She is such a little ham. We are blessed to have such a joyful, beautiful little girl:)

Dave has been spending a lot of time at the "house" which means Eliza and I have been spending a lot of time at Adam and Stephanie's house(Daves brother and his wife) while Adam has been helping David.  They are only 8 miles from our place. Michaela, their youngest, is 19 days older than Eliza. We have had a lot of fun getting them together. Eliza also loves being entertained by her other 4 older cousins while we are there:) I am really excited for her to grow up so close to them! I cannot believe how much bigger Eliza is than sweet, little Michaela. We may have a volleyball player on our hands. Who knows? (I stole a few pics from Stephs latest blog entry. Thanks Steph!)

                                  

                                              Eliza and Michaela

                                               Eliza and Anthony

                                                Eliza and Stephen

And down it goes....

  Well in the latest news, about 90% of our house is now gone. After a week of work on it, Dave decided it would be easier to just tear most of it down and start from scratch. A guy came in and demolished it. Here are a few videos Dave took. They are pretty crazy!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oayJXnIDffo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eyAl4iZgspk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zcLQ0PZbJRA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Va-zfF5Lasw
  We got Eliza's pictures taken on Tuesday. She did pretty good this time. A friend recommended Creative Eyes Studio. I was very happy with them and would recommend them to anyone! You can check them out here.
http://www.onlinepictureproof.com/creativeeyesstudio/albums/your_pictures/
Password: Eliza
 

Enjoy our latest videos!

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

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6hPXkKREvQ

    We've had a pretty busy last few weeks! 3 weekends ago, we went up to Atchison,KS to visit Karissa and Joe. We had a great time and I found lots of great bargains at the thrift store! 

    Dave has been spending a lot of time working on the house. This weekend he(with the help of his two WONDERFUL brothers) got a lot done. But, it seems that with every project comes something unexpected. ie..having to tear out our only full bath. Oh the joys of fixing up an old house! 

    Eliza has had MANY firsts these past couple weeks. She rolled over for the first time last week. She's only done it one more time since then. We're working on it. I'm pretty sure she is cutting her first tooth because she has been very crabby and chewing/drooling on EVERYTHING! After several purchases of teething toys(none of which she would have anything to do with..of course) we were finally successful with a soft grape teether that vibrates when you bite down on it.She cannot get enough of it and I can't wait for that tooth to finally pop through! Last night, she tried real food for the first time. Dave suggested she try the green beans. She was less than thrilled. I think tomorrow we will go with something a little more appetizing!

                         Hanging with Aunt Karissa

 

                                                   Princess Eliza

                                              Posing for Grandpa

                  Not too sure about the green beans

                   Uh-oh. Butt stuck in the Bumbo