Alex's Birthday Party

Eliza's friend Alex recently celebrated his 2nd birthday with a bash at the Children's Museum. We had never been there before and so we were very excited to go and check it out.

My favorite thing about this museum was that they have a "Toddlers Only" room. It is just for those who are 3 and under. Eliza was entertained the entire time we were there and I didn't have to worry about her getting trampled by bigger kids.

After exploring the museum it was time for Eliza's favorite part of any party . . . CUPCAKES!!!

I think the birthday boy was enjoying his cupcake too.

Happy Birthday Alex! We had a great time at your party - thanks for inviting us.

Cousins

While in El Paso for my grandmother's funeral, I was grateful that I was able to spend time with my all of my extended family. We are all scattered about the country, so even though the circumstances that brought together were quite sad, it was nice to see every one and catch up on their lives.




Nicole loves to take pictures with her Aunt Mare.

A.J. spent a great deal of time chasing after Joe. This little boy is always on the go.

My grandfather with two of his great grandchildren - Addi and her new little brother Brooks.

Aunt Courtney giving Brooks some love.

The adorable Miss Norah.

Addi and her her sweet momma Mandee.

I think Nicole really enjoyed her Shirley Temple.

Kristin giving snuggling with a very sleepy Brooks.

Brother and sister in the midst of a very serious checker game.

My cousin Amy shared the news with all of us that the newest cousin would be making a debut in December! Congrats Amy and Mark!

A Change of Heart

My main reason for starting this blog was to create a living history of our lives so that when Eliza is older she could go back and read it. I knew that I would include the funny and silly events and possibly even some of the mundane as well. I planned to include big events like birthdays and holidays, however I made a contentious decision to exclude things that might make us feel sad. However I have recently had a change of heart. I realized that excluding these things from my blog doesn't keep us from feeling sad.

On July 2nd my sweet Grandma, Mary, passed away. My heart was truly broken and sad. I grew up in the same town as my grandmother and I have so many warm and comforting memories I will always hold dear in my heart. Unfortunately I know that Eliza will not remember the times she spent with my Grandma, so I wanted to make sure that I chronicled those visits for her.

Eliza made her first visit to El Paso when she was just 7 weeks old. She and I spent 3 days with my grandparents and my Grandmother wanted to do nothing more than to sit and hold her precious great granddaughter. Her favorite phrase (always) was "Give me that baby!"

Eliza was a very good while we were visiting and was never really fussy, so I can't tell you how many times my grandmother said, "Jenny, that is the best baby I have ever seen."

However she was worried that the headband and bow I put on Eliza was squeezing her brain.





Last summer, Eliza and I were able to take another trip to El Paso. This time Aunt Mare, Grammy and Granddaddy joined us. We had a great time and my grandparents were in awe of how much Eliza had grown and how mobile (and fast) she was.


My favorite memory from this trip is Eliza and my grandmother playing with a puzzle as we waited for our lunch at Steak Burger. They were both having a grand time.

“If ever there is tomorrow when we're not together. . .there is something you must always remember. . . you are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think. . . but the most important thing is, even if we're apart . . . I'll always be with you.”

-from Winnie the Pooh

by A. A. Milne

Where O' Where Has My Summer Gone?

Well my summer is officially over. I head back to work on Monday. Even though I still in a state of mourning, I take comfort in the fact that I had a terrific summer.

We had a fabulous vacation in Colorado and I was able to spend quality time with my family. I enjoyed spending time with Eliza during the day and being able to do cool stuff like going to weekly story time at the library. I also enjoyed having a little time to myself while Eliza went to daycare two days a week.

Now that my summer is over, I thought I would share some of the projects I accomplished this summer. Unfortunately I did not take "before" pictures - where was my head?

1. I painted the master bathroom.

I LOVE how spacious this bathroom is, however I was not loving the baby blue paint that the previous owner had selected. I think the new color looks great. (Just in case you are wondering, the paint is by Behr and it is called Safari Vest.)

2. I painted the T.V. cabinet in the family room.

This cabinet was previously a light colored wood that really didn't go with our decor. A couple of coats of sleek black paint (Beluga by Behr) and we are good to go.

3. I reupholstered Eliza's chair


This was my first and probably last attempt at reupholstering furniture. I bought this little chair for Eliza last summer and she loves it but I can not begin to describe how incredibly gross and stained this little chair had become.


4. I purchased and painted a side table



We had a empty space at the top of stairs/hallway and this little table works perfectly. I bought it at Goodwill for $10 dollars and spray painted Heritage Red. I love it!

5. I created a mini chalk board for the kitchen

I really wanted a little chalk board for my kitchen - not really sure why. I got inspired at Hobby Lobby when I found this framed mirror in the clearance pile for $2.00. I painted the frame with the left over paint form the table and painted the mirror with chalk board paint.

I had planned on doing a lot of blogging this summer but that didn't really happen - at least now you know why!

Before and After

I recently found a blog called "Better After". This is a blog that features projects done by ordinary average non professional people and the transformations are astonishing. After seeing what is possible, I felt inspired.

I recently purchased this book case at a garage sale (another new obsession) and I knew it had potential to be perfect for Eliza's room.

So after some sanding, priming and painting. . . . here is my attempt at "Better After"!

I think it turned out pretty cute and now Eliza has a place to put all of her books. If you are looking to be inspired and need some decorating ideas . . . click here to check out Better After.

San Antonio Zoo

We ended our vacation with a stop over in the Hill Country to visit Grammy for a few days. Stephen had a conference to attend in Austin, so Eliza and I had some serious "Girl Time" with Grammy. We originally thought we would take Eliza to Sea World, but after some thought we decided the zoo would be a better fit for us.

The San Antonio Zoo was really wonderful and I hope we can go back soon - maybe when it is not so hot!

For some reason we didn't take very many pictures but we sure had a great time. Eliza is still talking about all the animals she saw with Grammy.

Favorite Photo Recreated

The first time we took Eliza to Colorado, she was only 4 months old. I know she doesn't remember it but she sure did have a good time. Luckily Stephen and I have fantastic memories of that trip and one of our all time favorite pictures of Eliza was snapped while playing out in the yard.

While we were in Colorado this summer, Stephen decided that we should try to recreate this picture. Not exactly the same but cute none the less.

One of Those Days: AKA Our Trip to Silverton

Stephen and I had planned on taking one day for ourselves in order to go rafting, but the morning of our planned trip, Eliza had many many many meltdowns - so we decided we were going to spare Aunt Jeanne from experiencing the "Wrath of Eliza" and we cancelled our plans.

Instead of rafting we took a drive up to Silverton to have lunch and show Eliza the trains. She really could have cared less about the trains and our lunch was HORRIBLE. Bad food - Bad service - just all around bad.

We did have fun doing a little shopping around town and before we headed back we had a very yummy funnel cake for dessert.

As we climbed back down the mountain we came across this beautiful water fall, so we decided to stop for a photo op.

The water fall was just gorgeous, unfortunately Eliza's behavior was not. Seconds after this photo was snapped, Eliza was sitting on a rock for time out because she smacked her Dad in the face. Yup - it was one of those kind of days.

The Cowboy Show

One of the traditions for vacationing at the Colorado House is attending dinner and a show at the Bar D Chuck wagon. The last time Stephen and I went to the Bar D, we left Eliza at the house with Aunt Sunny and Aunt Jeanne, but this year we decided that she was old enough to come along.

The scenery is absolutely breath taking, the food is really good and the show is also fun, but we knew Eliza didn't care about any of that. She had her sights set on riding the little train that goes around the property. She had been talking non stop about going to the cowboy show to ride the train the entire day.

When we arrived, we were greeted with the sad news that the train had encountered some problems earlier and was currently not working! They hoped that they could it running again in time to do one or two more runs before dinner. Eliza was beyond disappointed but lucky for us the train was fixed and Eliza and Mommy caught the last ride before dinner.

While we stood in line for the train, we entertained ourselves by taking pictures. (Side Note - one of the reasons we like going to Colorado is because it is a nice escape from the blistering Texas heat. However while we were there they were experiencing a bit of a heat wave . . .as if you couldn't tell that by looking at my red sweaty face.!)

Finally it was our turn to go and we waved bye - bye to Daddy.

She was a little uneasy about how loud the engine was. I think she would have liked it better if we had not sat in the front car.
Overall, we had a great time and look forward to continuing this tradition in years to come!

The Continuing Story of Our Days in Colorado

While we were on vacation we had the opportunity to take Eliza to the park twice.  The first park we visited was very close to the Animus River and we were able to spend some time watching the kayaks and rafters.  Apparently the snow melt in Colorado happened very quickly this year, so the rapids were really moving.

Eliza was quite enamored with the slides at this park.  She must have gone up and down these two slides about 50 times.  When it was time to go, we had to pick her up and carry her to the car because she kept running back to try to slide one more time!

Later in the week we visited a pesticide free toddler park.  This was a great park.  It had a ton of shade and had a creek running through it with a sandy area for kids to play in the water.  I loved that the play equipment was smaller and easier for Eliza to climb on. She was once again pretty obsessed with the slide.

I think Stephen's favorite part about this park was our snack of  GIGANTIC chocolate chip cookies we picked up at a local bakery called Bread.  If you are ever in the Durango area, I highly recommend it.