Thursday, November 10, 2011

Happy Birthday!

Eliza turned FIVE today!  Every day this girl makes me laugh and makes me so incredibly grateful that she is my daughter.  One of the things she wanted for her birthday was breakfast in bed.  I'm not sure where she even heard of that but she came and woke me up in the morning, and asked me for scrambled eggs and a waffle.  Then she went back to bed and waited for me to bring it in.  Matt and I cracked up about it.



Her presents this year were so much fun for me to find.  When I was about 8 or 9 I had these dolls called Hot Looks.  They were only around for a couple of years in the 80s and then they stopped making them.  My parents had hung on to a bunch of my stuff and have been bringing me boxes to store here since we have a basement now to keep things like that.  In one of these boxes were my old Hot Looks dolls and Eliza loved them.  She played with them all the time.  I had a couple of outfits but not much else left from so many years ago.  So I went on ebay and found another doll along with a bunch of clothes and accessories.  After I got that I decided that she was going to need a place to keep everything.  Barbie closets are too small for these dolls so I got on ebay again and found an old doll closet from the 50s that was the perfect size.  So after a paint job, some details, and some hangers, here are Eliza's birthday presents from me!

Before


Amazing what a little paint can do!


All done!




Her new doll!  All the clothes and hair and accessories are so 80s.  It's awesome.  But all that stuff is coming back in fashion!


Matt had the day off and dropped her off at preschool which she thought was pretty cool.  He picked her up and surprised her with flowers.  So sweet!  Eliza was so funny in the morning.  She said, "Mom, I'm so lucky on my birthday because I get to go to preschool!"


Her preschool birthday crown

We met for dinner with both sets of grandparents.  Also David, Michael, and Jared came which made her extra happy!

Presents from Grandma Carrolyn


So cute!  Cousin Michael got her a present!


Veggietales DVDs from my mom.  She LOVES these movies.

Then our camera batteries died.  Grandma Carrolyn also got her a Barbie which she was just in heaven over.  I almost forgot to say the best part for Eliza was meeting her new baby cousin before dinner.  Jenna was born yesterday and Eliza was beyond excited to meet her.  She is such a sweet little baby.  Congrats Dave and Amanda!

Eliza is such a joy and makes our family so happy.  She is a sweet, smart girl.  She loves school and reading.  She loves her brother (deep down :))  and tries to make him happy.  She loves primary and learning new songs.  She is a very curious girl and is constantly asking me questions about anything and everything.  She loves Angry Birds and is way better than Matt or I at it.  She can be very dramatic and sassy but thankfully she is still sweet most of the time.  We are thankful every day that she is in our family and for the wonderful little girl she is.  Love you Zi!

Tuesday, November 1, 2011

Halloween!

Halloween is so fun with kids but it's exhausting!  It's like a week (or more) of parties.  

Here are some cute pictures of the kiddos in their costumes...





We got a couple more uses out of our decorated basement with some family parties.





We also went to the Crazy Corn Maze and let the kids ride the ponies afterwards.





Hope everyone had a happy Halloween!