Who does Elsa look like?

I saw this picture last night and I could not believe my eyes...

Elsa with red hair...

Blake was a pretty cute little boy and I'm fine with Elsa looking like him then 

but the ending product... 

I love my Blake!!

9 Months

Elsa is nine months and still such a perfect baby.
We really have had nothing to complain about.

This last month has been busy...

At the beginning of the month we took a road trip to visit family for Thanksgiving, here's the run down of the trip:

Friday - left early in the morning and drove 10 hours to Pheonix, AR

Blake has a friend that lives there and was getting married,
Blake was the best man.

Checked in to our hotel, ate and hung out with Blake's friends.

Saturday - Wedding... I've never been to a wedding were the bride said "Woot-Woot" and "Word" during the cerimony... lol, to each her own I guess...

Elsa and I left the reception early (9pm) for bed time, in the van. Blake was done "partying" around 11pm and we headed off to MO. After switching every 2-3 hours we made it through the night!!!

Sunday - We/Blake drove and drove, etc.

Here's Elsa in Kansas about 13 hours in...

 

 

20 hours of driving we made it to Grandpa Thackeray's house in Lenexa, KS that night. Elsa did such an awesome job!! She didn't fuss at all!! Besides the normal hungry or sleepy cues she was wonderful!!! Amazingly she even took normal naps. The trip just confirmed Elsa is the perfect baby!!

Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures of the rest of the vacation. I'm hoping I can steal some from the better parents that were there.

The rest of the trip went like this:

Monday - Left Gpa Thackeray's and drove 45min to Liberty to hang out with my sister, Micah. My sister, Micah, is so wonderful she went Thanksgiving shopping with me (Tiffany was but her sweet little babies were sick). Two shopping carts full later we made it alive!! Did I mention it was for 30 people? And that doesn't include 20 pies that were bought the day of (Did Doug end up eating them all?)

Tuesday - Hung out with Micah some more, we were in a Quiet Book group and had a page exchange party that morning (if you know what a Quiet Book is you know it's a task to try to make one yourself, so we got together with 9 ladies total, each making two different pages and making them 9 times, by the end everyone has 18 different pages and only had to think about 2 of them, it's cheaper too!)... and waited for my mom, Evan and Tyre to get home from visiting my aunt in Nauvoo... they made it!! My mom, Tyre and I spent the rest of the day brainstorming and  shopping for decorations for the big Thackeray event. Hint: Don't buy Fall decorations at Thanksgiving time - they don't exist. Thank goodness my mom had a lot of it already!! I love planning stuff like this with my mom, its so much fun and it's something she's super good at. It's fun to see her work her magic.

Wednesday - Woke up early to do some last minute errands and headed up to the lodge in Lawson to decorate and set up. Grandma Thackeray was having an important birthday this year so all of the family (kids, their spouses, grandkids) got together to surprise her for this birthday.

It was a grand surprise!! We had great fun being with each other and celebrating this great time of her life!!
Thursday - Thanksgiving!! Great food and wonderful company, what more can you ask for? I am so grateful that Blake's family let my mom, Evan and Tyre spend Thanksgiving with us too!!
Friday - People started throwing up... it's was aunt Neesha's day off and since we hadn't been able to see her yet we decided to visit her. So much fun!!! Back at the lodge more people were getting sick so we decided to stay the night with my mom(Grandma Dee).
Saturday - We head back to the lodge... I spend most of the day over the toilet... everyone decides to check out of the lodge early... the few of us out-of-towners left stay at Grandpa Thackeray's place.
Good thing the sickness that was going around was just a 24 hour thing so by the time we headed back to Utah the next morning I was feeling close to great! Elsa was such a good sport and she didn't get sick!! I feel so sorry for the little babies that did.
Sunday - Left early, drove the 15 hours to Utah with great weather until we hit the mountains and even then it wasn't that bad until 20 minutes from home. It always seems to happen like that, the last stretch takes longer than the rest of the trip. We made it home and happy!!
It was so great to see everyone and meet little Eliza and Sawyer!! I really wish I had gotten a picture of all six of the babies together. It really was great to be with everyone!!
  Elsa couldn't have been any better, she took great naps, she woke up more at night than usual but who doesn't when they are not in their own bed, her first tooth even popped out while we were there. She was so happy to be with other babies! Something she doesn't get a lot of at home. Over all it was a fantastic trip!! Thanks everyone for making it unforgettable!!!

Since we've been home Elsa has gotten other tooth...
we've just had a few cranky days and rough nights but Elsa is doing well with getting teeth. When they are easier to see Ill put up a picture of her Goonie smile.
(Babies getting teeth always reminds me of Sloth from the movie Goonies)

As for crawling Elsa doesn't have a clue... she can shimmy on her bum if it's just out of reach but it's seems impossible for her if it's any further. She loves to stand if your holding her fingers, other than that she really doesn't know what to do with her legs.

Elsa also had her first hair cut! Not much but a little off the back. She would get some nasty knots after sleeping. Although it didn't eliminate all the knots it's more manageable and I don't have to be the mean mommy that makes the tears.

We always have so much fun together!!
Papa and Elsa built their first fort together!
 Elsa loved it!

 

We might have enjoyed it more than she did...

Elsa loves to rock on her little rocking cow. 

It's so cute to watch her go to town on it.

Elsa likes to help her papa study for finals!!

I can't believe another semester is soon to be over.

  

This was such a good month!! I couldn't imagine anything else that would have made it better. 

Catching Up

Things have been super busy the last couple of weeks and blogging has not been a top priority. I never got around to post Elsa's eight month post so you'll get just a little one to catch up.

This is also mainly for Blake because I never got this video up and he is so proud of it!!

 

A familiar picture... papa in his chair... after a long hard day at school of course.

Elsa still loves to play and chill with him as he winds down from his day.

 Elsa is such a good sitter! She doesn't need anymore help.

Elsa loves to drink from cups... no matter how big they are and how wet she gets.

Trick or Treat!

I love Halloween! Growing up my family would always dress in themes and my mother would make our fabulous costumes, wither we wanted them or not. I love the tradition (well, now I do and appreciate all that my mom did!) and want to bring it into my own family, but with an open mind that public school and "maturing" can be hard and be sensitive to those feelings. I spent all summer trying to talk Blake into dressing up with Elsa... he finally said yes! I have the most wonderful husband that spoils us so much! I was so excited to dress Elsa up! The more I thought about it I realized that our church wasn't having any kind of Halloween party, Elsa won't remember anything/can't really go trick-or-treating, Blake really didn't want to dress up and just said yes to make me happy, and I already had so much to get done in the next few weeks.  I really didn't have any good reason to the whole costume thing, so I decided not to do anything. Halloween got closer... and closer... a week to go and I couldn't take it! Elsa has to dress up for her first Halloween! 

 Saturday, we dressed up and went trick-or-treating. We walked around to the front of the house and knocked on Jim and Ramona's door, Elsa's first trick-or-treat!! Next we went to Blake's girlfriend next door, an older lady that he dose a lot of handy work for and always seems to be gone to her place. She just loves Elsa!! She thought I was a turkey (I'm a flower if you couldn't guess) I didn't wear my headband the rest of the night. Then we went and visited Grandpa Russell and Blake's sister, her family and her in-laws. Elsa was such a good sport and was a happy girl even way past her bed time. Sunday, we had a party with all the Thackerays and Elsa dressed up for that too! We had such a fun Halloween!!

   

 My pretty little Bumble Bee!

 Because Elsa was such a good girl Papa decided to reward her with all sorts of Halloween treats. Her favorite was the mini lollipop.

Let it SNOW?

We had a surprise when we woke up this morning...

still in our jammies we put on our hat and boots...

 and ventured out into the white wonderland!

Our view is so pretty when it snows!! The whole valley is white!

 Elsa wasn't so sure about the cold white stuff mommy calls snow.

 The snow didn't last long, all four inches melted by lunch time.

I'm not sure if I'm ready for winter...

Rollin' rollin' rollin'

Elsa learned that she can now get to anything she wants!!

This milestone is making me feel more sad than happy. This is only the beginning for my little baby... she's not a little baby any more. I don't know if am ready for her to be able to run away from me but it'll be great when she can run to me! The happies out weigh the sad for sure!!

Seven months

 Elsa turned seven months old just as fast as summer turned to fall. 

It was sad packing all of the cute summer clothes away, but new adventures a wait us in the new season.

Elsa can stand all by herself!

 

Just joking, but she loves to roll around! 

Elsa figured out that she can roll on to her tummy and that she likes it!!

She loves to go back and forth, watching how the scenery changes and seeing where she can end up.

Elsa found her tongue!! My very own lizard!! 

It's so cute to to see her wag it around as she makes her little talking noises.

She's taken an interest in my tongue as well and can't seem to keep her little fingers out of my mouth.

Eating big girl food is always a blast with Elsa.

We introduced her to those puffy snacks and since she didn't really know how to handle the tiny things, she had to improvise.

Since then she has mastered picking them up with her hands and getting them into her mouth. Elsa's favorite foods are peas and squash. Got any ideas on other types of finger foods for her age?

 We are having to be more careful as to what's around her, I underestimate her reach. It always seems to length with the desire to consume.

Elsa loves it when her daddy comes home from school. She shouts for joy and climbs upon his knee!

Daddy lets her help play video games.

Elsa amazes us everyday with the new things she is learning. It so fun to watch her little fingers find a new toy or fiddle with the tags on a new toy, which is her favorite! She loves stuffed animals to chew on and furry soft blankets to snuggle with. 

We love our little Elsa Louise!!