Lizzie likes Santa

We took her to our ward Christmas breakfast and she didn't mind sitting on his lap.  I think she was too entranced by her candy cane.  But anyway, how cute it she here? 

In unrelated news, here is what she does all the time now.

She is baby-stands-a lot and now she is look-ma-no-hands baby.  She likes to see how long she can stand without falling on her cute little bum.  It's Christmas next Sunday.  Yipee! 

DMC Christmas Dinner with the First Presidency

So every year in December DMC has a special Christmas dinner just for DMC VPs, board of directors, and the first presidency.  I actually got asked to play in it last year because I played the harp and then got asked to play the violin and harp in it again this year.  Let me tell you, it's a real treat and one of our favorite events of the year.  It was lovely last year but somehow even lovelier this year. 

Dazzling isn't it?  The deco was blue and silver and the food was incredible - pomegranate salad, fresh Lion House rolls, salmon, filet minion wrapped in bacon, and asparagus and yummy deserets which I couldn't finish.  President Monson sat at that table right in front of the music stand and I got to look at him while I played.  I even got to shake his hand before the event started and he was so kind and loving and afterward I just stood there basking in the warmth and joy of being so close to him until my boss, Greg, kind of did an "earth to Nelda" wake up call.  Haha.  What a moment of joy.  I played the violin in a quartet with the choir  made up of DMC employees and the choir was just tremendous.  I know there were angels singing along.  Everyone was moved.  President Monson even stood up to applaud after the songs. 

I got to play the harp during the beginning of dinner. Paul got to come too so he could help me with my harp and he was tickled by the whole event.

While playing my harp, President Uchtdorf and his wife, Harriet, came up to me and started talking to me about how they remembered my parents calling me Neldita and asked about my parents too.  I told my father later on and he was very happy about it.  They were so kind and thoughtful to do that. 

It was one of those nights you never forget and can't believe really happened.  I got to observe President Packer and his wife and saw so many of the 12 apostles there it was truly moving.  President Uchtdorf gave a closing talk about the Savior which I loved.  I'm happy that Paul and I get to share that memory together and I'm grateful for my musical talents so that I could be there that night.  What a lovely December evening it was.

 

Baby Ben is born

So we got back from Hawaii on Tuesday morning November 28 (horrid red-eye flight with baby only sleeping two hours, don't even get me started) and we did some catch up.  The next day, Paul flew in on the red eye and we picked him up and went to visit Martha's new baby Ben Archer Mortensen who was born on Tuesday, Nov 28 at 3 a.m.  It was so fun to see such a tiny, precious little baby.  I can't believe Lizzie was ever that tiny.  Lizzie really liked him.  Greta ended up naming him.  How cute is that?  Maybe Lizzie will name our next baby.  We'd love to have another baby soon.  I'll keep ya posted.  Here is a cute pic of Lizzie staring down at baby Ben.  She squealed in delight. 

He was born via C-section a few days early and Martha looks great!  So happy all is well.  

We're in Hawaii

Wow!  I just partook in the most peaceful sunset.  It was pure perfection and I basked in every moment of it.  I have decided that partaking in a sunset is like feeling God gently smiling upon you.  It is so, well, I have no words.  Better to just show you.

So, where do I begin?  How about with this cute little bug below who has been my best buddy on this trip while Paul is at work working hard.   

I had to wake her up in the middle of her nap to take her to the airport.  She is sooo precious when she sleeps.  She sticks her little bum in the air and pretty much her whole body rests on her head!  

Here she is on our Salt Lake City to Seattle leg of the trip.  She liked this part of it but had a really hard time sleeping later.  I wasn't sure if it was even worth it until we got there. 

This was the incredible view from our junior suite (we got upgraded because we requested a handicapped room) of the ocean!!  It's so incredibly happy and peaceful. 

Here I am all dressed for church in my favorite white dress. 

Well, my computer is being weird, or blogger is or was.   It won't let me post a lot of photos and now we are back from Hawaii and I have so much to catch up on.  So I leave you with these a few pics below.  But don't despair, we had such a blast in Hawaii and took so many pics I have decided to make a whole photo book out of it for Paul for Valentine's day. 

Baby Elisabeth is now 8 months!!



My how time flies.  I don't know where to begin.  I am writing from the lovely big Island of Hawaii on the Hilo coast.  We are in Hawaii for 9 days!!!  We are some lucky folks.  Paul was sent over here for work and we got to come with him  and we are loving it.  It's during the Thanksgiving holidays and today is Wednesday, November 23 so our sweetie is exactly 8 months in Hawaii.  You know what's even crazier?  My parents took me to Hawaii when I was 8 months old!!  Uncanny huh?  Okay, before I forget I need to write what Elisabeth is doing now.  Then, I'll do another post (or a couple) about Hawaii and it's loveliness.

• She loves to smile at people and I am calling her Miss Public Relations.  Wherever we go, in the airplane, at the beach, she is all smiles for people and she does the cutest thing - she shakes her head at them and then they shake their heads back at her and on and on it goes.
• Everyone adores her wherever she goes and call her a living doll.  She has the prettiest, biggest green eyes right now.
• She loves nothing more than to be held and "walked" as she is held.
• She can feed herself her little puffs all by herself and loves them.
• She still takes two good 1 1/2 naps.
• She has done really well on this trip considering the time difference (3 hours) which has gotten to me and Paul as well.
• She can clap her hands together and likes to clap them against mine.
• We think we have seen her wave bye a little but are not sure.
• She crawls just fine but prefers to spend her time pulling herself up rather than bother crawling.
• She likes the pool and beach and likes the feel of sand on her feet.
• She says "baba" now and not just "amama."
• She has been crawling to me lately and crying as she crawls and it's the cutest, most endearing thing ever.
• She loves to hear music and bounces around and claps to it when she hears it.
• She does not like long plane rides and has a hard time falling asleep on them.
• She loves peekaboo now.

I think that's it for now. 

The holidays are a-comin!!

I just love this time of year and now that I am a momma I love it even more.  I love introducing Elisabeth to new things like snow

Here she is wearing my Russian hat.  So cute!

I feel bad.  Like all I write about these days here is Elisabeth when there is actually a great scope to our family life.  Paul is a great father and husband.  He has been extremely busy these days at work prepping for us to go to Hawaii.  Thanks hubby for taking us too!  Here's a funny pic of Elisabeth playing on his computer.  She LOVES his computer and my phone and she'll crawl to it.

She also likes to pull herself up on everything.

And here we are prepping for the holidays.  I got her a Christmas coat!  Couldn't resist!!!  How precious is she??

I miss Paul tonight.  He went to Hawaii a day early but we'll be there tomorrow!!!  So excited!  Wish us luck on the plane ride.  Toodles!

Halloween

We had a happy Halloween in the McAllister household.  Little Elisabeth dressed up as a bumblebee.

How precious is she??  Look at those squishy cheeks.  We took her to a family party at Grandma McAllister's home where all the cousins dressed up.  Here she is with her sweet cousin Bethany.

And here she is with her Grandma and Aunt Martha.

We had fun dressing her up for the occasion.  Earlier that day Paul was trying on his mullet and we put one on Elisabeth.  She loved wearing it and giggled a lot.  It was so funny and she looked hilarious!!

Everytime I look at the pic I laugh all over again!

And look at her above.  She looks like she's posing with her pretty wig.  Mostly she's happy cause she's with her daddy whom she adores.  But who wouldn't adore a handsome and loving man like him??

On Halloween I took her and my friend Arriana and her little boy Kendrick to the Southtowne mall for trick or treating.  There were soo many cute kids dressed up there.  Elisabeth kind of just took it all in.  Here is Kendrick fasinated by her bumblebee antennae.

Also, before I forget, Elisabeth went to visit her cousin Hayden who is seven months older than her.  She is Andy and Elena's little girl.  They had a fun playdate.

Andy is such a good dad.

As you can see in both pictures, Elisabeth was fascinated by Hayden and kept trying to touch her.  She likes to touch kids her age and play with them.  She also liked hanging out with Aunt Iza.

After we visited them in Provo, I took her to the Love Sac store.  How cute and tiny does she look on this love sac?? 

And now our little seven-month-old is walking by herself as long as we hold her arms up!  She just started today and walks sideways like a crab!  Also, we are all excited because Paul is going to go to Hawaii for work through Thanksgiving and we get to come with him!!!  We think Lizzie will love the ocean. 

Baby Elisabeth is now 7 months!!

I admit I breathed a sigh of relief when she turned 3 months old and I believed it when she turned 6 months but 7 months!??  Really???  She's getting so big so quickly.  This past month she has developed more than ever before:

• She weighs 18.5 pounds still and is 27 1/2 inches long
• She only wears 12-month-old clothes and is starting to get a little big for it
• When she is a little sad she says "a-mama" and even "mama."  It kills me!
• She rides in a fancy new car seat - Britax Marathon and likes it
• She laughs a lot more, especially when I play with her a lot and stack blocks for her to push down.  We do it over and over again and she laughs
• She still doesn't mind getting passed around to different people so no stranger anxiety yet
• She loves to eat solids
• Her first bottom tooth has erupted and it's sharp!
• She scoots backwards everywhere and can sit herself up from a tummy down position! Incredible to watch
• She sits up in the corner of her crib and starts to cry because she can't figure out how to get back down
• She still eats everything in sight
• She is such a good girl.  She rarely really cries with tears and only whimpers a bit when she is frustrated but she doesn't like to cry.  She's such a sweetie
• She loves her daddy more than anything in the world and gives him big smiles. 
• She finally likes to play peekaboo and gets it
• She is precious and we love her.  She always sleeps through the night (no dreamfeed) and sometimes I have these mother pangs where I just want to run into her bedroom and scoop her up and kiss on her!

Here we are at the farmer's market yesterday by the pumpkin patch.

And here she is with her poppa

Elisabeth rocking back and forth

Our fabulous trip to Colorado Springs!

So Paul and I went on a minimoon (our first in almost a year) to Colorado Springs for some R&R and it was stupendous and much needed.  I have fantasized for months about sleeping past 6:30 and I did.  One day I slept until 9 in our lovely hotel room at the Cheyenne Mountain resort.  But I digress.  Let me start at the beginning.

First, we took our sweet lil baby cakes on a plane way early in the morning and she did marvelously well!  As we boarded the plane, I laughed as I saw half the people looking at our baby in terror and the other half smiling at her fondly.  People feel strongly one way or the other about babies, it seems.  Anyway, she was just happy and smiling the whole way on the plane and fascinated by it all.

When we arrived at DIA she took a little catnap on me in the front carrier which was so tender.  Then, we took her to my parents' home and she slept for 2 1/2 hours.  She was pooped!!  Then, we had lunch and left her in the arms of my parents and she was happy as a clam.  Didn't cry a bit.

We took off in my parents' convertible which they lent us and the weather was pefect!  The trees were turning color and we were delighted.  First, we stopped by to do a session at the Denver temple. 

Then, we drove to our hotel and sunk into our lush beds.  I highly recommend the Cheyenne Mountain Resort.  Then, we went out to eat at a cute Italian restaurant.  Then we came home and watched the cute movie, Midnight in Paris.  Such a treat! 

The next morning we woke up late and went for a hike through Seven Falls Park.  It was a lovely hike and we took in the sights of the fall and the autumn colors. 

Here I am walking up the many stairs to get up the falls to our hike.

You can see the falls behind Paul.

Here is Paul, master of his hike!

The photographer called us a photogenic couple here.

After our hike.  We went and ate at the lovely and delicious Edelweiss Cafe.  We sat outside and it reminded me of eating in Germany.  It was very authentic.  Paul got the German Cherry Torte and I got the plum cake. I know, I don't eat sugar, but I cheated on our minimoon.

Later on that day, we went hottubbing. This is the view of Cheyenne Mountain (that government mountain) from our hot tub. 

That night, we ate at the plush Penrose Room at the Broadmoor Hotel.  I had long wanted to eat there and it didn't dissapoint.  It reminded me of places I have eaten at in Europe and was even better than La Caille.  We each had a three-course dinner and were just in heaven.  It was so fancy that a different waiter brought us our food on a plate covered by one of those big plate covers and then at the same time, they revealed our food.  Like Ta Da! 

This first little dish was courtesy of the chef.  It was a caviar cream and some other sort of cream and the tiniest sandwich I have ever seen. 

For dessert we split a flourless chocolate mousse.  Divine!

You can see people dancing here.  Paul took me out to dance too and I felt like he was gliding me around heaven. 

The next day we left our lovely room with a balcony

We went to Royal Gorge which was about an hour away.

They had some crazy but pretty cacti there.

Then we got back in our convertible and took a lovely scenic route home.

By the last half an hour I was just dying to see our sweet Elisabeth again.  I couldn't wait to scoop her in my arms and was afraid she would be sleeping by the time we arrived but I got there just in time for her bath.  She had had a lovely time with my parents but I was so glad that she gave me the biggest smile and looked really happy to see both of us again.  Look how cute she is here!

The next morning we went to church and then soon after we left for the airport where we took our plane back to Utah.  Elisabeth did a great job again.  Here she is staring out of the plane window.   

We were happy this worked out well because it looks like our next trip is to Hawaii!