Lizzie - You Are One!!

Dearest Lizzie.  You had a wonderful first birthday (I believe) on Friday, February 23, 2012.  When you woke up that morning we sang you happy birthday and brought you a birthday cake (banana bread) with whipped cream on top and a #1 candle.  You looked pretty happy about that and dug right in.

Your Mami Vicki and Opi in Colorado got to see you on Skype and sing to you as well and you kept on waving to them.  It was so cute.  We kissed and hugged on you and gave you some presents.  Bye the way, how handsome is your daddy?  Pretty ruggedly handsome, huh?

You then took a nap and when you woke up, we took you to the zoo to be with all of your friends and family.  You got to hang out with your aunts and tons of cousins and Grandma McAllister and your parents and we couldn't help but dress you up all cute for the event.  A tutu dress!!  You weren't too happy when I placed you in Aunt Jenny's arms for a bit though.

So we put you back on your daddy's shoulders where you are always happy.

You had a blast hanging out with your cousins.

We took you to see the giraffes and you couldn't get over how tall they were and you got to hang out with our friends Arriana and Kendrick.

You had the cutest ruffle bums in the world on the whole time.  I had to get a picture.  You also ran into another cute girl who turned one the same day!  But you were pretty focused on looking at the animals to pay much attention to her. 

 We then gathered around you and sang you happy birthday and all ate cookies together.  Good times.

You totally missed your afternoon nap but didn't seem to mind too much.  You were pretty jazzed so we took you to check out the new City Creek Center which just opened downtown.  It's a sight to behold.  

We were quite taken with it and especially excited that it borders the temple and will really bring a touch of class to the whole downtown area.  What else are you up to these days?  Well, you say "Dada" when you see your dad and you say "Moooo" when I ask you what the cow says and you are a laughing happy girl and we love you big bunches.  What a fast year this has been and how marvelous too!  Thank you for coming into our lives, my darling.  We will love you for eternity Elisabeth.

Having a good life

"If I didn't have you I'd have nothing," and I just quoted Paul saying this to me tonight.  Just another testification of how wonderful my life is.  We had a great Sunday today.  We took my friend Arianna and her cute boy Kendrick to church with us and I am really happy with how it went.  Here I am with Arianna.

She is so sweet and Kendrick and Lizzie are now besties.

She likes to eat his hand.  Lol.  And in other news, we are getting sooo excited about moving to Heber.  We don't even dare to think about how nice with will be.  We are so very blessed and I must give thanks to the Lord.  In the meantime, we are looking forward to Lizzie's first birthday party.  We are taking her to the zoo for it but it's gonna be a laid back event for sure.  Our little baby cakes is almost 1.  Sniffles!!

Enjoying our baby

I've decided that 11 months is a wonderful and delightsome age for a baby.  She makes the most adorable googley sounds and little laughs and is really becoming a little person.  It's amazing to witness and behold.  Also, she is growing up so quickly.  We definitely want to have another cutie like here asap.

What else is new, you ask?  You know, I think of blog topics on the go and then I forget.  I know I want to eventually do a blog post on "lessons learned."  Another one is "lessons from my childhood which I want to remember so that I don't put my kids in a spot."  (e.g. don't bundle them up all the time, it's the worst feeling to be a little kid with no say in the world.  Paul especially feels that way.  So remember that, these posts will be coming soon.

In the meantime, some newsy updates:  Paul is getting trunkie for school and for Salt Lake.  He can't wait to graduate and move and be a mountain-biking machine.  I am happy for him that he is almost done.  I am working on Sterling Scholars at work but am looking forward to new jobs coming up too.  I am in a casserole-making phase, which Paul loves.  Yummy.  He just returned from a work trip to Washington D.C. which he really enjoyed.  This year is the year of the missionary for me so I have been working hard on that and making some inroads and I am thrilled and terrified at the same time because you must constantly keep a prayer in your heart that you are saying the right thing to your interested-in-the-gospel friends.  I'll keep you posted.

With her Mami Vicki on the white piano at home

She communicated!!

She did!  So happy.  This morning I forgot to give her milk as I usually do first thing in the morning and she kept squeezing her hand at me making the milk sign and I was so confused until I understood that she was asking for her milk.  The moment I gave it to her, she drank it up!  Wonderful, isn't it??

Also, I am in Colorado right now with my parents this week.  My father had a hip replacement surgery on Monday, Feb 27 but he is doing much better now.  So happy and grateful.  He will be able to walk again (which he had a hard time doing for the past 2 months).

Get caught reading

This happens a lot.  

Lizzie is 11 months old

Really?  Only a few weeks away from being one-year old??  I can't believe it.  So here's what's new with sweet baby cakes.  She really is growing by leaps and bounds this past month.

• She can drink from a straw, yay!
• She likes to be in nursery at church.
• She says mama and dada a lot and tries to talk to us with her babbles.
• She laughs and giggles so much these days.  I love it.  She laughes histerically at the foosball table and whenever I dust with the funny duster.  
• She is often caught reading, not even kidding.  It'll be really quiet and we'll wonder what's going on and she is sitting there turning pages.
• She had her first big sickness and fever of 102.8.  It was so sad to see her ill and she just laid there on me and fell asleep which never happens.
• She's not really into sitting down patiently on my lap.  She likes to roam.
• She copies everything we do like she likes to give kisses and clap etc.
• She bounces along happily whenever she hears music.
• She can stack the rings of the colored ring stacker all by herself!!
• When I ask her to give me a toy she is holding, she hands it right to me. 
• She is very close to figuring out how to put the shapes in the right hole for the shape sorter.
• She is so smiley and happy to anyone and everyone.  
• She is a much better napper and sleeper these days.  I love it!
• Sometimes when I sing to her, she sings along.
• She is fascinated by the bathroom and wants to pull all the toilet paper down and put her hand in the toilet and eat the cleaning solutions.  Egads!
• She has really blossomed this month and makes us smile in a million ways.  Love you Lizzie. 

Night on the town with Snicko Snako and Mitt Romney

Yes that is indeed my latest name for Paco - Sniko Snacko.  So funny!  He actually started it all.  I told him I love you last night and he said "snicko snacko" back and we laughed and laughed and now that's what we call each other.  It used to be bumpco.  So guess who waved at us last night?

That's right.  Mitt Romney!  Future president of the United States (I hope?).  He was really nice and pleasant.  Utah sure is the right place to go to boost your self esteem if you are Romney, I think.  He walked in and everyone got up and cheered.  He said some nice things about the Olympics.  The poor guy is not perfect but people just won't give him a break.  Why anyone would ever want to be president is completely beyond me.

Anyway, it was such a treat of a night.  We ended up getting tickets to the Olympics on Ice show at the Energy Solutions area and it was lovely to go out.  We got great seats (17th row) and amazing performers like that Scott Hamilton, Kristi Yamaguchi, and that Olympics gold medal winner couple from Canada who won in SLC in 2002.  It was the 10th year anniversary, you see.  I can't believe I didn't take a picture of the actual skaters.  But anyway it was so fun to look at the back of Romney's head and feel the energy in the audience and most of all to be there with Paul, my true love.

Romney talking along with Kirsti Yamaguchi

Skaters in action

Romney