Bet she never asks that again...

Elizabeth: "Why do we speak English?"

Nate: "blah blah blah... Columbus... blah blah... James Town... blah blah... French and Indian War... blah blah blah... Louisiana Purchase... blah --"

Elizabeth listened intently, and then interrupted with, "Are you done yet?"  before she ran off to play.

Why do I stall?

Nate goes to bed earlier than I do almost every night. All of a sudden I think that I must watch this show that has been on my DVR for four months tonight. Or finish a sewing project, or a scrapbook page, etc...

After the show is over, I shut all the lights off and get ready for bed, brush my teeth, wash my face. I walk into the office to shut my computer off... but I might as well check my email real quick before I go to bed. Oh there's a good sale at that store, maybe we'll have to check that out tomorrow... and pictures are only 7 cents at that website right now! I'll just select the pictures I want to print real quick... Okay, back to email. Well. That email is annoying. I definitely don't know what to do about that one... I should probably stare into space for 5 minutes while I think about what to do about it. Nope, nothing. I suppose that email can wait until tomorrow. Finally I shut the computer down.

I turn around to shut off the lamp over my puzzle table, and think, wouldn't it be nice if I could get just one puzzle piece before I go to bed? Eleven puzzle pieces later, I shut the lamp off. Then I think I spot a piece I've been looking for! Lamp goes back on. Yep, it's the one! Five pieces later, lamp goes back off.

Then I go crawl into bed, hoping I don't wake Nate up so he can say, "What time is it? Wow, you aren't going to get much sleep tonight."

Thanks for that.

Slappy Slappy Blue Ball

Whenever Daddy walks in the door after work, Lizzie starts saying, "Slappy slappy blue ball, Daddy!!" over and over again. Which pretty much means she wants to go downstairs to play. Slappy slappy blue ball is a game Lizzie and her daddy made up and play downstairs where they slap my big, blue yoga ball. Weirdos!

She will also start looking for her shoes and wanting to go outside as soon as her daddy walks in the door. She loves going outside. LOVES IT. Even when it is cold and I am out there shivering, she does not care. She just wants to be outside!

Today when Nate walked in, Lizzie started yelling, "Daddy! Slappy slappy blue ball! Walk outside! Shoes! Jacket! Daddy!" Whoa baby! He didn't know which way to turn! They are outside playing right now. =)

Well, it has finally happened...

Nate has finally written something in the baby book! (Well, the notebook I keep on the counter to write down cute things that Lizzie does.)

Just so you know, "baball" = football

Okay, so here is what the proud daddy wrote in her baby book:

"Elizabeth said FOOTBALL ON! Daddy is so very proud. I was watching a game and had it paused and she pointed to the TV and said 'baball on.'"

And then Nate proceded to tell everyone he knows about his daughter wanting to watch football. Weirdos.

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.

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!

Happy Anniversary, honey!

Today is our 2 year wedding anniversary, and our 7 year anniversary of when we started dating. It's hard to believe it has been that long. It doesn't seem like its been 2 years since our wedding, and it certainly doesn't seem like it has been 7 since we started dating! Happy anniversary, baby!

We are planning on staying in a cabin next month for our anniversary get-away. I'm excited for that but am extremely nervous about being away from Lizzie for 2-3 days. Hopefully I can handle it!

Shopping for... a helmet?

This is probably a total "you had to be there" thing, but its something I want to remember forever, so I thought I'd write about it here. :)

Today, Nate, Lizzie, and I went out and had a fantastic lunch together, and on the way home, passed by a cycle shop. We were almost home when Nate thought we should turn around and take a look at this shop since I am in the market for a new bike.

So we turned around and went the mile and a half back to the cycle shop. He said he is going to run in to make sure its worth getting Lizzie out of the car and lugging her in. Several minutes later, he gets in the car looking all sheepish and tells me to drive.

What happened inside is this:

Nate poked his head inside the door and saw that the cycle shop was in fact a motorcycle shop, and not at all a bicycle shop. As he is shutting the door, the salesman asks, "What are you looking for today?"

Nate, so as to not look like a complete fool by simply saying, "Just didn't know if this was a motorcycle or bicycle shop," and then quickly leaving, stepped in, looked around, and said, "Uh... helmets."

So the salesman goes over all of the helmets with him, telling him which ones had blue tooth capabilities, which ones had two speakers as opposed to one, etc. (by the way, helmets have blue tooth and speakers??) Then he asked, "Is this for a dirt bike or a road bike?"

Nate: "... Road."

Salesman: "What are you riding?"

So at this point, I thought Nate should have just said, "A motorcycle." I think that would have been hilarious. But since Nate wasn't sure of any actual names of any motorcycles, he said, "Um..nothing yet."

After the salesman talks a little more about the helmets, probably wondering why the heck someone would shop for helmets before actually owning a motorcycle, Nate said, "Well, my wife is in the car, I better get going! Its nice to know you guys are here!"

As I am driving away from the motorcycle store, he is telling me this story, and I am literally crying and shaking from laughing so hard and considering pulling over. I asked him if he was going to buy a pretty helmet first so he could get a motorcycle to match.

So, needless to say, bicycle shopping today was a big FAIL!

Box Picture

Every time I see this picture, I have to smile. This was taken February 2, 2008 and I got my BFP on February 13th (my b-day!). When this picture was taken, I was already pregnant and just didn't know it yet. I had no idea my life was about to change so drastically. No idea how my life was about to completely turn upside down. No idea just how much I would love my new upside down, crazy life.

Its funny how a picture of me and my husband being dorks and sitting in big boxes would become so significant and important to me!