Beautiful blue eyes!

Before Elizabeth was born, I was always saying that I hope she had her Daddy's blue eyes! And, while I know eye color can change up to around 18 months, as of right now I can definitely say that she DOES have her Daddy's blue eyes.

Can you see the *almost* teeth?
Her gums feel hard, so
hopefully they'll break
through soon!

Time to eat: banana

It's been a while since I've last blogged. How I've missed it! :) 

We went to Abilene this past weekend to celebrate the life of Alan's Grandmother. She will be greatly missed, but we know she is in a much better place! I'm so thankful that we were able to go down and be with family. It was a such a sweet time with everyone. Elizabeth enjoyed seeing her cousins, just as much as they enjoyed getting to hang out with her. I am so blessed to be  in the Letz family!

Now... on to eating... I bought Elizabeth some Earth's Best oatmeal to take to Abilene so I didn't have to spend forever making it while we were there. And, much to my surprise, Elizabeth actually likes it better! That will save me quite a bit of time daily! She is actually eating the entire bowl now. And, as of Monday, eating more than she is spitting out! Yay!

I bought a little mesh strainer thing to put food in so that Elizabeth could chew on it and experience what "real" food is. Yesterday, I put a chunk of banana in it for her to try. She really liked it! I think next time I'll put a couple smaller pieces instead of one piece, just to see how she does with that. Oh, and on a side note... For those of you that have used one, how do you clean the mesh part? Do I need to use a fresh one each time I give her food in it?

Onto the pictures...

Banana chunk

Give it to me!!

What is this?

Yummy!

Look at those rolls!

Love this baby girl!

A Girl and her Camera...

It's no secret that I love to take pictures! And I think Miss Elizabeth is going to love taking pictures, too! Here she is intently studying the camera. And oftentimes, she'll reach for the camera when I'm taking her pictures.

So when Gammie bought Elizabeth her first camera, I had to document how she played with it. The weather was cool enough yesterday evening to go outside for a while. I love the natural lighting! I also played around with some settings on my camera! So fun!

non-blurry background (F18)

semi-blurry background (F5.6)

most blurry I could get with my camera (F4.5)

Hmm... what is this?

I think I like it!

My big girl!

playing with the blanket

Jenny Jump Up

It's no secret to those around us that Elizabeth LOVES to jump! I can put her in her Jenny Jump Up (or our borrowed jumperoo), and she'll be content in there for forever jumping, talking, and playing with the toys. I finally got a video of her jumping in her jumperoo (the Jenny Jump Up is in our bathroom/closet doorway - I'm sure you don't want to see that... haha). It is just the cutest thing!

Well, Monday evening, I put Elizabeth in her exersaucer so I could get a few things done in the office. When I looked over at her, she was attempting to jump in it. It was so funny! Elizabeth just kept jumping, even though she wasn't getting the same action as she would in her jenny jump up. She was really hamming it up, too - smiling, laughing, the works. I wish I had got that on video, but by the time I had my camera, she was just playing with the toys. Hopefully she'll do it again so I can get it on tape.

Time to eat: avocado

Alan went to the grocery store without me Saturday morning (so Miss E could get a good nap in), and came home with a couple of avocados. So yesterday, I decided to try that with Elizabeth. I mashed up about 1/3 of the avocado with a fork and added some milk (about 1/2-3/4 oz) to make it to the desired consistency. She wasn't too sure about it, but she did manage to eat more avocado than she did oatmeal. I gave her the rest of the avocado today, and she did even better! She's still super messy and doesn't actually eat much, but like I've heard "food is for fun until you are one!" I am looking forward to when she can finish off a bowl, though. I know it might sound crazy, but I hate to waste any of my milk... I mean, it's not like I have over 1500oz in the freezer. Haha.

Looking at the bowl

Not so sure...

Let me have another taste!

All done! And headed for a bath!

Labor Day Weekend!

This is the final post of catching up... I think... It is also a picture laden post. Don't say I didn't warn you. :)

My parents were able to come down for Labor Day weekend! We had a lot of fun! Since my brother is at A&M, he was also able to come down to spend the day with us on Saturday. Here's what we did in pictures... (all pictures were taken by my very talented Dad!)

Uncle Dustin fed me!

Silly faces with Gammie

Achoo!!

Silly face!

Kisses

Way up high!

Uncle Dustin is so strong!

standing up

me and Mommy

"Eating" a bell pepper... I'm not so sure about this thing..

Reading with Gammie

Playing with Daddy

More kisses

"Hi Daddy!"

I still love to swing

Me and Mommy

Waiting on my "surprise"

It's a spinning top!

Exploring my new toy

Experimenting with my camera

For the past couple of weeks, I've been letting Elizabeth sleep with a doll that one of my friends gave her. Yesterday, after I put her down, she wrapped her arm around the doll. ::Melt my heart!:: I wanted to get a picture, but I knew that the flash would wake her up. I had her lamp on, but it still didn't take a good picture. So I put my Canon on manual and messed around with the F-Stop (I think that's what it's called...).

This is the evolution of the picture.

Without messing with the settings

Take 2

Take 3

Take 4... Finally a keeper!

It's pretty amazing what you can do using the manual setting! I definitely have a lot to learn, though...