Eliza was seven months on July 6th, and these pictures were taken right around then. Since then, she's started crawling up on her hands and knees and she is really fast. She's even started pulling herself up on things.
Eliza is always smiling and happy. She has brought such joy into our lives.
Here I am playing with my little girl. She loves to crawl over to me when I'm on the floor and climb all over me, and she especially loves playing with my hair.
Here's our little chunk-a-boo on the first day that she sat up on her own. She was on the floor on her belly one moment and then when I looked at her again, she was sitting up, and she did it all on her own! This was on July 1st.
...you realize that nothing of yours is personal anymore. I was just about to climb into bed one night, when I saw THIS sitting on the bed, courtesy of Travis, our little car-obsessed toddler:
When Corey uploaded the most recent pictures from our camera, I found this whole file folder in there from before we went to Texas with some fun pictures that I had wanted to share.
This is Caitlin, Caleb, Toby and Westley playing Superheroes when we baby-sat the kids during Toby and Jenn's anniversary.
Here are the boys playing "school". Westley is the teacher, of course.
Here is Travis being Superman/Spider-man. He is dressed as Superman, but is slinging webs, like Spider-man.
Here is Travis slinging webs as Spider-man. Westley let him borrow the head to the Spider-man costume. Travis is always slinging webs (he even does the sound effects), and one of his favorite words is "webs", which is SO cute to hear him say!
Westley and Caleb are making snow angels--hence, the knit hats.
This is Westley and Caleb's museum, which they played for weeks after visiting the Museum of Natural History here in Mesa.
Westley and Caleb standing in front of some of their museum posters--signs they made showing patrons where to find each exhibit.
Anybody ever get a song stuck in your head, but you only know one line or one phrase? The above phrase is the current song stuck in my head; however, there is no other part to this particular song, as it is a song that Westley made up and woke up singing this morning. We asked him where it came from and he said, "My head made it up."
Too bad you can't hear the lovely tune that goes with it...
Since we got back from Texas it seems that every child has been sick. We got back on Tuesday, on which day, Westley had a high fever. The next day, he got a sore throat and Caleb came down with a high fever. Then the next day, Caleb had a sore throat, and Eliza and Travis had the high fevers. By Friday, I was actually writing down the times I took Travis and Eliza's temperatures, how high they were, and how much of what dose I gave them, just in case it got worse and I had to take them to the doctor.
Today everyone seems fine, but Westley keeps whining about a sore throat still and Eliza is drooling and crabby. I think she's teething, but maybe her throat is sore too, that could cause drool.
All I can say is that having 4 sick kids is pretty miserable indeed!
Tuesday morning was our last day there. Our flight was leaving at 2:15 pm, and we had to get the rental car returned by about noon. So we went swimming at about 8 am before leaving Jordan and Andrea's.
Travis and Matthew (and Caleb and Leah) in the spa
Westley in a tube
Peter playing with Travis
Westley jumping off the waterfall
Cute Caleb playing in the pool
Westley was super grouchy carrying his backpack and pulling his suitcase at the airport. We had lunch in the terminal and then boarded the plane. Corey was with Westley and Caleb and Travis in row 31 (by the engine--so no view again) and I was up a few rows with Eliza. After the flight, I found out that Westley had gotten sick on the plane with what Hannah'd had the day before (high fever, sore throat, stomachache). She'd been checked that morning and it wasn't strep, just a viral infection. Westley was really feeling lousy, and while we were waiting for our luggage, he just laid on the bench and moaned while Travis and Caleb ran all over the place and Eliza cried because she was tired. Then we found out that Westley's suitcase hadn't come on that flight. So, to top off him not feeling well, he didn't even have his special star blanket, the one Aunt Ruth made him when he was a baby, to comfort him. He even had to go to bed without it. The airline dropped off the suitcase at the house at about 11:15, though, so Corey went and gave Westley his blanket. I'm just glad they found the suitcase! Anyway, we got home, had In-N-Out for dinner, and unpacked.
We really had fun! I loved being in Dallas and remembering all the sights, sounds and smells on that day at Mimosa Park, which really brought me down memory lane. Corey and I both thought Dallas was beautiful. It was a lot of fun to spend time with the Dallas Fowles and get to know them better and have cousins getting to know each other. Hopefully we'll get to visit them again there in the future. Now it's back to reality...
On Monday, Jordan and Corey went to play racquetball in the morning. After racquetball, Corey came home and Jordan went to work. Andrea took Hannah, Leah, and Matthew with her to a pre-surgical appointment for Peter's tonsillectomy and met us at the train station later in the morning to ride it into Dallas to Jordan's office. The boys loved the train ride and then we had to walk a few blocks to Jordan's office. They also loved looking out the window of the 56th floor at the city--they thought it was pretty cool. Then we went to a place called Jason's Deli for lunch, which was really yummy and I was so impressed with the customer service! After that, we went back and caught the train and went home. Hannah, unfortunately, came down with a high fever and sore throat and was miserable the rest of the day. We didn't get home in time to go swimming. We played some games together--Whoonu with the kids, and then after dinner and bedtime, Peter played Quelf with us.
Caleb and Westley on the train to Dallas
Westley and Matthew on the train home
Andrea, Leah, and Hannah on the ride home
Eliza was so cute, as soon as I pulled the camera out, she started grinning and babbling
Westley and Leah walking back from the train to the car
Corey wearing Eliza's bloomers on his head as part of his challenge for Quelf (wear something pink for the remainder of the game)
Jordan drinking water backwards for his challenge for Quelf
Eliza is always smiling and happy. She has brought such joy into our lives.
Here I am playing with my little girl. She loves to crawl over to me when I'm on the floor and climb all over me, and she especially loves playing with my hair.
Here's our little chunk-a-boo on the first day that she sat up on her own. She was on the floor on her belly one moment and then when I looked at her again, she was sitting up, and she did it all on her own! This was on July 1st.
This is Caitlin, Caleb, Toby and Westley playing Superheroes when we baby-sat the kids during Toby and Jenn's anniversary.
Here are the boys playing "school". Westley is the teacher, of course.
Here is Travis being Superman/Spider-man. He is dressed as Superman, but is slinging webs, like Spider-man.
Here is Travis slinging webs as Spider-man. Westley let him borrow the head to the Spider-man costume. Travis is always slinging webs (he even does the sound effects), and one of his favorite words is "webs", which is SO cute to hear him say!
Westley and Caleb are making snow angels--hence, the knit hats.
This is Westley and Caleb's museum, which they played for weeks after visiting the Museum of Natural History here in Mesa.
Westley and Caleb standing in front of some of their museum posters--signs they made showing patrons where to find each exhibit.
Travis and Matthew (and Caleb and Leah) in the spa
Westley in a tube
Peter playing with Travis
Westley jumping off the waterfall
Cute Caleb playing in the pool
Caleb and Westley on the train to Dallas
Westley and Matthew on the train home
Andrea, Leah, and Hannah on the ride home
Eliza was so cute, as soon as I pulled the camera out, she started grinning and babbling
Westley and Leah walking back from the train to the car
Corey wearing Eliza's bloomers on his head as part of his challenge for Quelf (wear something pink for the remainder of the game)
Jordan drinking water backwards for his challenge for Quelf
Me dancing with Peter for his challenge for Quelf
