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Rocking Chair from Vo and VoVo

 Now that we are back, life had calmed down and it's a bit sad. We have missed being around our people but are glad to get back to our animals and beds. Today was assigned to cleaning and putting up Christmas decorations. We drug the tree outside packed everything away.

The Christmas tree corner is now Eliza's play corner. We got so many toys over the break that they fill up a large part of our living room. It's good to be a kid.

New Years BFF Reunion 2013

 We finally got into LA at about 2am (4am our time). Nicole surprised me by coming to LA, which we thought she wasn't going to be able to do.  Needless to say, we were all tired and Eliza was still running a fever. After tending to her, we quickly went to sleep. Eliza woke up feeling much better, but you could still tell in her eyes that she wasn't 100%. The only person that wasn't there when we woke up the next morning was David, but we got him at about noon. That evening, we went to a park to play volleyball and Nicole ended up dislocating her toe, so I played resident mom and relocated it to the proper position.

 The next morning, Eliza woke up feeling better, but still had a pretty nasty cough. You can also see that she has a little bruise on her face from falling because she is getting pretty brave. She is giving me heart attacks, but I know it is part of her learning.

Bowling with a baby on my back

 On Sunday, all 9 of us went to Korea Town to this really nice bowling alley.I tried to bowl with Eliza on my back, which she thought was great, but Michael said she was shuffling around too much when I let the ball go. So, since Nicole had a bum foot and wasn't bowling anyway, she got some extra cuddle time with Eliza.

After bowling, we went to eat Korean Barbeque, which was crazy delicious. I have never eaten so much meat in one sitting before! Since filling ourselves with protein wasn't enough, we headed to Beverly Hills to fill up on sweets at the famous Sprinkles cupcakes. Since I am mostly done breastfeeding, I decided to treat myself to the most chocolatey cupcake they had!

 

 Some people got ice cream, but I wasn't ready for that much dairy! The left picture above is us standing in Beverly Hills in front of Sprinkles. The one on the right is us showing off that Eliza was wearing a cupcake outfit and should be their mascot!

Walking around the Tar Pits with Dad

 On Monday, we had to take Nicole to the airport so that she could spend NYE with her hubby. While we got it, it didn't make it any more fun to drop her off. We spent most of the day deciding what we were going to do and decided on the Tar Pits and LACMA. We didn't actually pay to go in the museum, but we did enjoy its outdoor exhibits.

Because we can't hog Eliza all the time, Mindy wore Eliza for a large part of the walk. After the Tar Pits, we went to an outdoor mall called the Grove. We mostly just walked around because we were all cheap, but had a great time.

Having 1-1 time with Uncle Mike at the Grove

 Since it was starting to get chilly, we headed back to the house to have a game night where a few of Mindy and Clarence's friends came over to play. Note to all readers, when playing Apples to Apples, sit next to Clarence (he is hillarious!).

 Tuesday morning started off wonderfully because we went and got Randy's Donuts. I haven't had donuts since way before little bug was born, so I thoroughly enjoyed my cinnamon twist and chocolate donut. Needless to say, there weren't leftovers.

 Instead of going out, we decided to have a chill day. Sarah, Mindy and I went out and ran errands while Eliza hung out with the 4 guys. We got back and she was in one piece and happy. That evening, the girls watched a movie and the guys smoked cigars and had a drink.

Sadly, Wednesday we had to leave to go back home. It was so nice to be around some of our closest friends and to see the love that they have for Eliza. Since all of our flights were roughly at the same time, we went to the airport and hung out. Sarah was in our terminal so we got to see her a bit longer.

Eliza was mostly a happy girl on our flights back, and slept when she started getting fussy. The flights were fine enough, but stepping off of the plane into 10 degrees made us want to go back to the beautiful 70s that we had been in. What a great visit :)

A Fast 9 Months

 After just getting over being sick, Eliza woke up last night running a fever. After feeding her and giving her some Tylenol, she slept soundly for a few hours. When she woke up, you could tell he wasn't feeling well, so I rocked and and she fell asleep. Wanting to take advantage of her sleeping, I laid down on the couch with her and we took a nap. There is nothing better than cuddling up with a cute little baby! <3

When she woke up again, she was fussy because she didn't feel well and her hair was a mess from sleeping on my arm and the couch. She is going to love seeing this picture when she is older! ;)

 After giving her some more Tylenol and cuddling, she got closer to herself again. While she still wasn't feeling well, she is such a trooper. This month was much more difficult to take her picture because she is constantly on the move. She no longer sits and gives you her attention. There is always something more interesting somewhere else.

Waiting for her Dr. appt

At 10:30, we had Eliza's 9 month Well Baby check-up. Thankfully we got good news that her weight is going up and that she looks healthy overall. Dr. Matthias is confident that since we have her feeding worked out, she will start growing more quickly and get back up to her growth curve.

After Eliza's appointment, we went to lunch as a family and went to donate blood. Michael donated first while I played with Eliza. Right now, Eliza is more like a puppy because she wants to chew on everything. When I was moving the beads on the toy, she did not care because she was chewing. After donating blood, we finished packing to visit all of our friends in Los Angeles.

Our flight left from Lincoln at 8:15pm, about 20 minutes later than it should have. That should have been a sign that this was going to be a rough flight. We got to Denver and learned that our connecting flight to LA was 2 hours late. So, for now, we are waiting in the Denver airport. Despite it being about 10pm our time, Eliza is being really good crawling and playing. I hope that the rest of our time goes well.

It's a Wonderful Life

Although we didn't have all of our family with us for Christmas, we had a great time with just our little family. Michael had to work the 24th, 25th and 26th this year, so we had to wait for him to wake up at 2pm to do Christmas and eat our breakfast casserole.

Thankfully, Eliza bug is young this year and doesn't fully understand the concept of opening presents. She did, however, enjoy ripping the paper again and playing with all of the neat things that came out of the mysterious boxes.

I got Eliza a toy that spits out little plastic balls and makes a lot of noise and two books, I Love You, Stinky Face and Barnyard Dance!. Michael got her a set of blocks that squish so she can chew on them, a book and a new bowl to mush food with. Michael got a sled (he's sitting on it) from Eliza so that they can play on it and footie PJs from me! Michael got me some new sewing scissors, a new can opener and an oven tray puller-outer (the technical term ;) ). All-in-all, it is days like this that remind me that we have a Wonderful Life!

No Escape

 Eliza is a pro at standing up these days! That being said, she is also a pro at standing in her crib I found out today. When I walked in, after she called me on the monitor, she greeted me with a smile and a wave, standing. Not good... so I asked Michael to lower her crib before he went to work. Now, she can stand all she wants (for now) and she can't tumble over.

Tonight, Eliza tried avocado for the first time. It was pretty cute because she is just learning to start chewing. She liked it okay if I put it in her mouth, but she did not particularly like touching the pieces herself. By the end of it, she was starting to get it down!

On the Road Again

Today we began our journey back to the Arctic. We didn't leave quite as early as we wanted to, which worked out because we got to spend a little time with Laura and Walt before we left and we missed most traffic. The first half of the trip went really fast because Eliza was well-rested and well-fed, but the second half of the trip went pretty slowly.

Taking a break at Burger King

 Eliza started to get very restless and irritable. You can only ask a baby to do so much, and she was letting us know that we had asked that much and more. Michael and I were amazed at how few of places had the indoor play areas like when we were kids. We were able to find a Burger King that had one so that Eliza could crawl around, but they didn't have a heater in there, so we didn't let her play long.

In the above picture, notice the outfit change. A little ways down the road, we started smelling a present that Eliza left us, so we pulled over at a store to change her and realized it required changing everything! Now that she is clean, she is much more pleasant, although the toy probably doesn't think so! Can't wait to be home for a few days.

Pre-Christmas in Alvarado

 We left Vo and VoVo's house early Sunday morning and began making our way back to north Texas to celebrate the season with my family. On the way up, I got to see my ZTA big sister, Catherine! I don't get to see her often, so Michael and I were ecstatic that it worked out. Although it wasn't long, the visit was great and Eliza got to meet her Aunt Cat :)

 My sweet cousin, Ashley, and her family hosted our Ugly Holiday Sweater party. In the picture above, Eliza is being entertained by Uncle Todd and Babe by silly sounds on a phone. Unfortunately, she really like "What does a fox say?". Even with tons of people passing her around and noise, she was such a good girl for the party. It wasn't until the end that she started getting a little fussy.

 Of course, everyone thought she was just the cutest, sweetest baby. At the party, she played with Kaysen and Spencer and was really interested in all of the neat things in Ashley's house. 

Although the visit wasn't as long as we would have liked, we got to see most of the people that we love and miss. Hopefully within the next few years, we will be closer to these fun people.