Birthday girl!

On March 6, our Eliza turned ONE! I have been having some very strange dejavu moments lately-- what a fast, exciting, tiring, rewarding, fun, humbling year it has been! We have learned so much and love this little girl to pieces!

So, our pictures came up out of order, and I can't figure out how to switch them back.  Just bare with me! These are out of order.

Her birthday was on a Wednesday, but Andrew had to work late and Andrew's brother, Matt, was coming in town on Saturday.  So we had her party on Saturday. It was so much fun! Eliza loved all of the attention, especially when everyone was singing "Happy Birthday" to her.

 Waving to her fans.

 I got lazy and made cupcakes.  I know that you probably can't tell, but they're supposed to be Elmo.

 In heaven.

Checking out her cupcake.  Most of it ended up on the floor.

 So this picture is from her actual birthday.  Opening her sparkly Toms from Andrew's family!

 So out of order!

 Eliza got this puppy for her birthday too, and she could not get enough of it.  She was hugging it the rest of the night. So cute!

 "I didn't do it!"

Loving her puppy.

The awesome decorations done by Andrew and Matt.

Happy birthday, Eliza! We are so blessed to be your parents.

Crazy Times

Many a morning I find...

 Quite the hair-doo.

Eliza next to a pile of papers from the past two years of school that we finally got rid of.

 Turkies again in our backyard on an icy morning.They were making the weirdest noises.

Eliza's cheeser smile.

11 Months!

Wow! 11 months! Eliza is getting more and more fun by the day-- playing peek-a-boo with us, doing the "motions" for "Twinkle, Twinkle," pretending to be on the phone, saying "da-da" when she sees/hears Andrew...

Speaking of Andrew, check out this picture:

 Holy moly, she looks like her dad in this picture!

 Doing her 360 bum spin.

 Waving at the camera.

Okay Mom, that's enough!

Cousin Time

Eliza was lucky enough to spend time with a cousin on each side of the family this Christmas.  She is older than both of them, but much smaller.  She still managed to steal some toys from them though, and maybe occasionally sit on them. 

With cousin Jack Madsen (Erica's side of the family).  He is 7 weeks younger than Eliza, but they were both mobile and loved exploring everything! Especially my family's dog.

On Andrew's side, cousin Noah is about 4 months younger than Eliza! He is a roller, and Eliza took advantage of that.  Poor Noah! He was a good sport.

 Almost holding hands!

 Back with cousin Jack! Jack put up with Eliza too. 

Just a little too cute.

"Pigtails"

Andrew's sister, Lydia (Hi Lydia!), had some rubber bands from her braces that she let us use to give Eliza her first pigtails! 

 Kind of alien/bug-like, but sure cute.

Snow

Eliza's first encounter with snow! Kind of a love-hate thing going on. 

In Utah with Andrew's family.  We miss them!
 (This is before we took her sledding. AND it is fresh, clean snow, just fyi.)