Back from Vegas!

We had such a great time in Las Vegas for our anniversary get away! I am surprised I survived a whole week being away from my baby! But if there is one place that has the power to distract, it is Vegas. Our days were packed with all kinds of fun stuff (which Nate didn't care for. His idea of a vacation is to nap all day. Yawn.)

We went to 5 different shows while we were there! My favorite was Blue Man Group! That show was incredible. I don't even know how to describe it. And they are so funny without even saying a word. Once when they went running into the crowd, one of the blue men came right up to me, about 2 feet away, and just stared at me. (We were in the front row of the second section, or the non-poncho section, way on the side) I was afraid to look at him! Nate nudged me and made me look at him. It was really weird!

My second favorite show, and Nate's favorite, was Defending the Caveman. Hilarious. I would definitely recommend this show to anyone in a relationship. You will relate! We even bought t-shirts. :)

We also went to Legends in Concert (with Donna Summers, Jay Leno, Elton John, Elvis, and Michael Jackson impersonators). That show was pretty good too. The Michael impersonator was spot on! And then there was the Tournament of Kings show and the Free Beer Improv Show, which was funny sometimes. The people IN the show were good, but they encourage audience participation, and that got pretty dumb.

Other than the shows, we spent our time walking, eating, walking, playing roulette, walking, swimming, walking, eating... did I mention walking? It was so fun just going into all these places and exploring. Roulette was fun until the night before we left when we lost $160 right off the bat. That part sucked. At one point we made a $40 bet on red at Bally's and lost. Then we walked across the street to Bellagio and made an $80 on black and WON!! (I hadn't even realized the dealer had spun the dang ball yet when it landed on black.
Nate had to say to me, "It landed on 33.... 33 is black.... we bet on black... Jenni, we won!"
Me: *blank stare* "...wait, we won?" Oh dear. :) That was exciting.

And here are a fraction of all the pictures I took in Vegas...

The cutest little luggage ever!

Reading a book to daddy before we left.

Cuddling with Mommy. I was able to put her to bed before we left for the air port. So sweet and so sad! I bet you can't even tell that I was crying. :(

We stayed at Bally's. I really, really liked it there. This is the people mover to get to the strip faster. I LOVED this thing except when it wasn't working! And I didn't care for the people who just stood on the people mover. Duh.

Nate and I waiting for a shuttle at Bellagio (I think). The views from the shuttle between Bellagio and Monte Carlo is AMAZING. Especially at night.

The view of the Eiffel Tower from our hotel room.

Part of our gigantic room. I really did love staying at Bally's and I would definitely stay there again.

The fancy bathroom part of the hotel room.

The only picture I was allowed to take of Blue Man Group was this poster. :( But the show was awesome!

My favorite part of Vegas. :)

I could see the Bellagio fountains from our hotel room!!!!!!

Nate and I in our room getting ready to go swimming.

An artist on Fremont Street in the middle of creating our painting! I want to say his name is Michael Fletcher? Not sure about that...

Sold... to us! I love our Vegas souvenir.

Nate and I in some random hallway we found in one of the hotels... I don't even remember where. All I remember is we laughed a lot.

Kissy Monster

Elizabeth gives kisses now!! REAL kisses! It is the sweetest, cutest, most wonderful thing in the whole world. She kisses our cheeks and blows kisses. She kisses her favorite stuffed animals and toys and kisses us with her favorite stuffed animals and toys. When she kicked me and I said, "Elizabeth Renee, you do not kick your mommy!" all stern like, she kissed both of my lets to get out of trouble. It worked! Stinker.

When she falls down and bumps her head or bangs a knee, I ask her if she wants mommy to kiss it. Then she runs over and lowers her head or lifts her knee (or whatever body part got hurt) and puts her hands on both sides of my head to lead me to her owie. She is soo cute! And then we "shake it off." She wiggles her little self to shake all of the hurt off. Sometimes I can't stand how cute she is.

Little Booger

Whenever Lizzie spills some of her water or milk, she goes to find a towel to wipe it up. Well, a towel or something else that is even a little absorbent. A shirt, a sock, a diaper, etc.

She will also wipe her own nose and mouth with a kleenex. Today she dribbled a little when she was taking a drink of water from her sippy cup, so she ran over to the couch where she had left her kleenex from earlier and wiped her face off. The winter will hopefully be easier if she can wipe her own nose!

Also, sometimes when the little booger's nose is running (or maybe just itches?) she grabs my hand and wipes or rubs her nose of my finger. Ew... She's so cute. :)

A post from Gammie :)

My mom, Lizzie's Gammie (or "Gigi" as Lizzie calls her), wrote the following story down for us while she was watching the squid one night...

Today Lizzie did something that I thought was so cute and so smart. She had her shoes on and was trying to get her daddy's shoes on over her shoes. I had just washed my hands and they were still damp. I went to help steady her while she was trying to get the shoes on. I took hold of her arm and she stopped with the shoes and kind of fussed, looked at her arm, and clumped over, wearing one of daddy's shoes, to the towel drawer. Then she grabbed a towel and dried her arm off! It was hilarious.

We booked a trip!

Our third/eighth anniversary is coming up on the 21st and we have been going back and forth for months trying to decide how to celebrate. We have been trying to decide between a hotel room for a night at the local Embassy Suites to a 7 day Easten Caribbean Cruise on the amazing new Norwegian Epic ship and everything in between.

We decided on a Vegas trip! We are going in August so it won't be over our actual anniversary, but will still be amazing! We finally got everything booked and finalized today! I am super excited and already wondering how I am going to be away from my gorgeous little girl for so long. Eep!

I can't believe it has been 8 years since Nate and I started dating. We have definitely had our ups and downs, but we get through it together. I am one lucky girl. I love my husband!

Well...

Looks like I didn't keep up with the "Picture a Day" thing for very long! I believe I have a picture for every single day, I just didn't keep up with the posts! Maybe one of these days... :)

Life continues to be a little crazy around here with a toddler! While she was a little slow to start saying words (in English), she has more than made up for it. She talks a lot.

She is constantly talking about "mama an' daddy,"
she says GeGe for Gammie Dianne,
says Bee for binky and book,
says hi, bye bye, ball, dee (for drink),
happy, hat, shoe, Gabba (like I need to explain this one to other moms :),
says something that sounds like goo gir for good girl,
eee for eat, says UP when she wants up,
and a word that sounds a lot like UP when she wants help with something (like putting on her shoes, which she does by herself except for the buckles, or if she stepped on tape or something),
she says hawk and eye but not together yet - we are working on it! (Go Hawkeyes!),
she says bebe for baby and points to herself - I think I must have called her my baby a few times!
When I ask "Who is my favorite baby in the whole world?!?" she says, "MEEEE!" hehehe
She says Nana and Papa for Grandma Judy and Grandpa Rob,
says ball and ball-ball for football,
Etc etc etc. She is saying so many words lately I stopped trying to keep my list updated!

She will also point to some body parts when we ask her where they are. So far we have tummy, head, nose, baby feet, ears, teeth, knees, shoulders, bunnies, tongue, and eyes. She can also point to these things on a stuffed animal or doll. So cute!

Something that Lizzie has done for a while is a little thing that we like to call "Pound Dog." She fist bumps us with the sweetest, cutest little fist ever! Until recently, when we would try to give her a high five, she would push our fingers shut and hold her little fist out. So cute! Now she high fives with gusto.

She also does this super adorable thing where she likes to hold our hand (well, our finger) and lead us around. It is the sweetet thing ever. She has the cutest little hands! She also started doing this thing where she'll fall down or step up on something, and then will reach out for our hand and say "Up!" (help) so we can help her up or down. It is so cute because they are things that she so obviously doesn't need help with, but seeing her reaching out for her mommy's hand is one of the greatest feelings ever. <3

Also in the last few months, much to my excitement, Lizzie has been getting more and more affectionate. It - is - AWESOME. She gives eskimo kisses, which are amazing. And she will just run up and hug our legs. More recently she will just reach her little arms out to give us a hug. And she'll say "awwww" or "mmmm" while patting our backs during the hug. I love her so stinking much.


So to summarize, Lizzie is still really super duper amazing and sweet and wonderful, beautiful, ornery, a little weird, and still the best daughter in the whole world.

May 14th, 2010 - Day 15

Here are several pictures of Elizabeth drinking out of my water bottle, which is almost as big as she is!

This face kills me. She is so cute!

This face also kills me, but for a different reason. =)

I love her smile. ♥

May 13th, 2010 - Day 14

Here is my little girl wearing her daddy's shoes while sporting her super cool new monkey jammies. Right after this picture was taken, she folded AND put away that whole hamper of clothes! (A mom can dream, right?)

This is a picture of my sweet little girl sleeping like a weirdo. =)

I loooooove my video monitor!

May 12th, 2010 - Day 13

So I guess today wasn't a very good picture taking day for us. So here is today's picture. :)

This is Lizzie standing in front of the tv probably watching Nick Jr. but I can't really tell what it is. There is also a kitty on her shirt. When we would say, "Where is the kitty?" she would look down at her shirt and sometimes would say, "kitty!" So smart. :)

May 11th, 2010 - Day 12

I don't remember if I posted about it or not, but a couple months ago, Lizzie managed to get out of her crib. I was watching her on the monitor as Nate was on his way to go get her out. All of a sudden, she was gone! Nate opened her door right then and said, "whoa!" I was already scrambling out of bed and saying "Is she out?? Is she out??" When he opened the door, apparently she was standing beside her crib. What a punk!

I have been worried about this happening ever since the day she turned 9 months old and learned to pull herself up. The front of this crib seems sooo low, even though it is on the lowest setting. (We very recently discovered that it has been recalled for other reasons, so we'll be getting it replaced soon anyway.)

So this is a picture of our solution for her escaping! We turned the crib around so the higher, back side of the crib is facing out and the really low, front side is facing the wall. And then we put parts of her baby jail on each side to keep her from getting out there. So far it has kept her contained!

This was Lizzie this morning when we went in to get her. She plays this binky throwing game with us, where basically we fetch the binkys she throws out of the crib. We just laugh and laugh and laugh... She is pretty fun. ♥