Oh, what fun

Kitty cat ears

  Eliza and I were walking through Target, and I had to stop by their dollar section to see if I needed anything. Well, turns out I didn't need anything, but I got some cute photos :) Notice, she does not look impressed with these!

Pumpkin!

 Michael, Eliza and I are going to the Pumpkin Patch this weekend, so I think I am going to go back and get this one.

A little witch

Since they are only a dollar, I may get all 3 of them!

Eliza's Half-Birthday flower from Daddy

 Since yesterday was Eliza's Half-Birthday, Michael brought her a flower home.  And, he brought me the flowers below. He is so cute... I think we'll keep him ;)

6 Months Already!

I know I say this every time, but I can't believe it is going this quickly! I blink and she is a whole month older. I absolutely love the big personality she is developing and how much fun she is to play with.

 I am amazed at how happy of a baby she is (now that her tummy is better). She is always smiling, telling me stories or singing me a song. Now don't get me wrong, she has her moments :)

 One of my favorite expressions of hers right now is one where she scrunches her nose and breathes in and out of her nose quickly. She does it when she is being held and is excited. Silly girl <3

Progress Report #3

 We are so close in the bedroom! The floor has been painted with the epoxy, the windows get changed tomorrow and the floor trim will be put in soon :)

The office, however, has a long way to go. I am still cleaning this room from sanding. The drywall is in and mudded, though. Still need to primer, paint and do the floor. This room is getting new windows tomorrow, too.

Bed before

We were given a bed from my Uncle Todd and Aunt Angie when we were married. It is a very nice bed with lots of curlies and very sturdy. Since the bedroom is so small down there, we have decided to make a few modifications to make the fit a little better. We took off the side arm things, took off the top curlies and are painting it.

We'll see how it goes :)

Days From Crawling

Happy Girl while mom reorganizes the kitchen

 Let's be real, no one reads what I write. You all just like to see picture of Eliza. I get it! So, today, I will do just that :)

"I'm hiding"

"Here mom, I'll help with that"

"These sweet potatoes are pretty good, dad"

"I helped"

This is her "I'm going to grab that if I get closer" look

Yesterday and today, Eliza has been doing two new things in the area of forward movement. One is above. She does a pike position, then straightens out to move forward. Looks like too much work if you ask me. The other is that she can make it to hands-knees, but doesn't know what to do when she gets there. We are just days away from her figuring it out. HELP!

Progress Report #2

We have been working hard and made significant progress in the downstairs bedroom. In order for this room to have the "Cleveland Stamp of Approval", we are replacing the window, painting the floor, painting the bed that goes in the room and putting everything back. We are getting very close to having a space for guests again!
    

Woo Woo ;)

Since we found mold in the basement hallway as well, we removed the drywall and Michael replaced it today. One step closer to being completely mold free :)

Before

Since we don't have enough to do, I found another project on Pinterest that will make our lives so much better! I don't have a real pantry, so I decided to turn the coat closet (which is in a weird place right next to the kitchen) into a pantry. 

During

After about 2 hours of work and paint, here is my new pantry that I can't wait to organize :)

After

Filled :)

Morning Beauty

I had to wake my sweet girl up a bit earlier this morning so we can make an appointment. Since she is so darn cute when she wakes up, I went ahead and brought the camera. I love her morning hair and her sweet smiles when she wakes up. I am a lucky momma.

After the appointment we came back home and dad was awake, so we decided to make our umteenth visit to Home Depot for more supplies to fix the house. Since she is sitting up by herself now, we tried the shopping cart. Here's her reaction.

Eliza's Naming Ceremony

My camera messed up at the beginning of the ceremony, so we didn't get all of the ceremony. I will be getting a copy from the church and will update this post then.

Chelsea, the director of RGL talking during the ceremony

Overall, it was a wonderful ceremony. Eliza was so cute, smiling at the people sitting down and playing with her feet. I don't think we are going to have a shy one. When Fritz, our minister, took her, she was a happy girl and didn't cry. She was alert and interested in what was going on.

After the ceremony, Michael, Mindy, Eliza and I went to Chipotle for lunch and then came back to the house to relax before Mindy had to go to the airport. Her little hands are interested in everything, especially our water bottles.

We had to get a picture of Eliza with one of Godmothers, Mindy.

New Hair Do

Yesterday, we had the first broccoli encounter

Yesterday was an all around exciting day! We got up and left early to drive to Omaha to get Auntie Minder. She flew in to help us celebrate the Naming Ceremony that will happen on Sunday. We also tried our second food, broccoli. At first, she didn't know what to think of it. Above it the glorious face that she gave us :)

Taken on Thursday

Lately, I have taken several pictures with her hair "all nat-u-ral" and people have been caught off guard! I usually keep it kept in a bow to tame it and keep it out of her eyes. Since she is getting to where she is taking the bows out, I tried a new hairstyle. We shall call it "The Pebbles".

Bedroom Progress

Before

 Nice enough room, right? WRONG! There is mold lurking behind the walls. Since our insurance company didn't give us enough money to get it fixed, we decided to do it ourselves :)

Removed the moldy carpet

Removed the moldy drywall

Rented a cement sander

Replaced drywall

By tomorrow evening, the joints will be fully mudded, the walls with me primered and have a bright shiny coat of paint on them. We will then clean the floors (Again) and paint the cement a rich brown. At the end of the month, we are having windows put in that will allow us to make this a legal bedroom. Hoping that with all of these goals in mind, this will turn out looking like a decent room :) And, not to mention, we bought this as a 2 bedroom and will be able to sell it as a 3 bedroom (at least)! Hopefully we'll make our money back on the repairs.

First Encounter With Carrots

"Hey mom, whatcha have there?"

 Since little miss Eliza is almost 6 months old, we decided that we could give her her first encounter

with solid foods. One of the recommended first foods is carrots, so we steamed them, pureed them and mixed a little milk with them.

"Where you going with that?"

"Wwhat is this?!"

"Mmm, Yes, I think this will do!"

"You aren't doing it fast enough! Here let me do it!"

After the first two bites, she got very excited and started kicking her legs. After 5 or 6 bites, she started losing interest. We will try carrots for the next two nights to make sure her tummy doesn't get upset by them and then move on to something else exciting :)

Could It Be Teething?

 Lately, our little lady has been drooling like a Dogue de Bordeau and can't keep teethers out of her chompers. When I put my finger in her mouth to rub her gums, she smiles and sings me a song. Also, her gums are starting to feel fuller than they have in the past. On several blogs, moms say that wetting and freezing a rag makes a good teether. So, in the above picture, I handed the cold teether to her for her to check out. Several seconds later, it went straight to the mouth. She chewed on it for about 5 minutes and then was done. Overall, I think it was successful!

She Wants to Play

The Nebraska air is starting to get a bit chilly, so while I worked in the yard yesterday, I had to dress Eliza a bit warmer. Her little hoody is the cutest thing ever! She is getting much at sitting up, although she can't do it unassisted yet. She will get there soon though. 

She is learning how to work those little abs of hers and can right herself when she starts to fall over. We practice every day so that she can get it. It also gives me a perfect time to get cute pics of her :)

My sweet Angel dog is also starting to come around! I think with us giving her attention while we are holding Eliza and the fact that Eliza is more mobile is helping. Eliza desparately wants to play with the dogs! Angel gets much closer but is still very cautious around her. She will sniff her head or lick her hands but kind of wigs out when Eliza touches her. 

Above, Eliza is watching Angel play is trying to get over there to her :) They are going to end up being good friends!

This is our favorite

In every stage of her life so far, we have said "this is our favorite part". Well right now is definitely our favorite part so far. She is getting so much fun with her pre-crawling/rolling across the living room, laughing on her own at things and the testing of the limits of her vocal cords. A blanket no longer contains her, so we just vacuum the rug every morning to free it from animal fur and let her go. She has her baby push-up down!

This morning while I was eating breakfast, I sat her in her chair. I realized that her high chair is also the perfect place to do her hair because she can't roll away from me :) Today we tried two bows that Vovo gave her. Adorable!