Summertime Fun

We have been trying to really be out and enjoy things so far this summer. Once this baby comes we are not sure how much we are going to be able to do. We have made a trip to the zoo with some friends from church, Richard and Elizabeth have gone on a bike ride, we have had a couple of days at the pool and Elizabeth has decided that she is going to be like her Daddy and start reading some BIG books.

Richard was sitting on the couch reading Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy and Elizabeth decided she wanted to get up there and sit next to him. She said "book, read" to him so he read to her a little bit and stopped and then she asked for more. So he read a little more. He closed the book and she took it, opened it and started to read it for herself. It was quite entertaining.

Reading Daddy's book

Zoo with Baker and Mindy

Bike ride with Daddy

Vacation to Branson

Back about a month ago we took a little trip to Branson to see my Dad and just to get away a little bit. We had a really good time. We went to Silver Dollar City with my friend Stephanie and her 2 girls and just explored things a little. This was a much needed get away after having our house struck by lightning and before the baby comes. Elizabeth had a lot of fun with her Papa and wanted to always make sure he was in her sights. If he wasn't she got a little worried and just kept asking for him. Here are a few pictures from our trip.

WATER

This spring and summer we have discovered that one of Elizabeth's favorite things is to play in the water. Any water really. It doesn't matter if it is a puddle or a drip from a faucet, once she sees it you can't pull her away. So enjoy the pictures of her water times. It is almost a nightly ritual now.

LIGHTNING...ARGH!!!

Well for those of you who haven't heard, we were officially welcomed to Oklahoma and the weather that comes with it. On May 2nd at about 2:30am we were awakened to an awful sound. For those of you who haven't ever heard what lightning sounds like...I hope you never do. However, at the time we didn't think much else of it because everything appeared to be working just fine. Then Richard went to leave for work and found it...our house had been struck by lightning.



Thankfully, our house is still standing and when you think about what could have happened, we were very blessed! It hit above our garage and that is just attic, so we didn't have to move out of our house. It blew out our garage door opener, security system, upstairs heat/ac, one light switch, and it did something to our phone line/internet (still trying to get that one resolved). We also has it blow out tons of drywall in the garage and there were bricks everywhere. Other than that we were fine, and we have insurance!!!

Suprise shower

Last week I planned on having some friends from church over with their kids for breakfast. Much to my surprise it became much more than that. They had planned to have a surprise baby shower for me. Needless to say, I was very surprised. come to find out, Richard was in on it the whole time. They got some inside info from him and I was very blessed. We are stocked up on diapers for a while now so that is always a good thing.

Elizabeth had her 18 month check up and the doctor just confirmed what we already knew, that she is doing wonderful and her vocabulary is advanced for her age. She is doing great and just continues to be a blast to have around. We went to Denver a couple of weeks ago and she got to see both Grandma's and lots of other fun people. We also found out that come October she is going to be a flower girl for Julie Miller's wedding...we are so excited for that.

We're all Easter

Well, we have had an eventful last week. Our house back in Denver sold so that consumed a lot of time just getting everything finalized, but it also gave us a lot of reasons to celebrate. Easter was a lot of fun. It is a blast to see Elizabeth get excited about these things. We had an easter egg hunt at our church and that was right up her alley. We have recently discovered that she is a cleaner and an organizer, so she had a blast cleaning up the field of eggs. At one point we thought she was done, but I think she just needed a break and then she decided to completely clean up an area of about 8' x 8', when she was done there wasn't an egg left on the ground, and when her basket was full, she decided to put the eggs in her diaper bag.

Easter morning she got her basket with Elmo, Ernie, Oscar and Cookie Monster in it and has not been able to separate from them since. We went to church and then out neighbors had us over for Easter lunch. All in all it was a great time. Here are a few pictures...

Bubbles

Just in case you were wondering what things Elizabeth likes these days...this video should answer a few of those questions for you.

These boots were made for walkin'

This is a video I meant to post earlier and didn't get to it. It was the beginning of March and you have to keep in mind that she was definitely ready for a nap when she was doing this.

Getting Around

Here are the video clips that I promised. Elizabeth is just enjoying her new modes of transportation. I wish I would have caught the first moments with each of these because that is when she was showing the most excitement.

IT"S ANOTHER GIRL!!!

Well, I have been meaning to put up a new post for a while now to let everyone know that we found out we are having another girl. As much as we would love to have a boy, we are also very excited to have another little girl and for Elizabeth to have a sister. I suppose we will just have to try again for a boy...at some point!

Things here are going pretty good. We are really starting to feel more and more settled. We have found a church and are really getting plugged in there. I have been doing a Bible Study that meets on Tuesday mornings and also getting together with some other women and kiddos on Wednesday mornings. Richard has been going to a men's breakfast and Bible study on Wednesday mornings before work and we are starting to get involved with a small group. It is making quite a difference for us here. Not to say that we don't still miss our relationships that we left behind in Denver.

Elizabeth is more and more fun everyday. Here is a funny story...yesterday morning we were at one of the breakfasts that I have been doing on Wednesday's with other Moms and kids and I guess Elizabeth was hungry or something. She was asking one of the Moms for some of her "roll" (anything that is bread is a roll to Elizabeth) and she gave her some. The next time she had more roll in her hand and it was within reach, Elizabeth just went over and grabbed it out of her hand. You would think we never feed her or something. Here are some fun pictures of her. I also have some video that I need to down load and I will get that on here too.

All bundled up for a brisk winter walk

Whose boats are these?

Having a blast!

More from Christmas

Sorry it has taken so long to get this together, but here it is...These are a few fun moments from Christmas. Elizabeth had a blast with all the excitement. The one portion that might need a little explanation is the part when she decided it would be fun to run around with her eyes closed. Amazingly, she has only run into a couple of things...I am pretty sure she peeks.

She is almost 16 months old and is a lot of fun. She is learning new words almost daily, and unfortunately has hit a stubborn streak. Most of that is shown when she wants to take the lid off of everything and put it back on. If we don't let her she throws a little fit, and we just ignore it. The other thing that gets to her is when she can't pick up all of her treasures and carry them with her. She usually likes to be carrying atleast 3 things at a time. Overall, she is a joy and we still think she is a keeper.

I'm Gonna be a big sister!!!

Yes, Elizabeth will be a big sister come July. Our due date is July 1st. We are really excited about this but sometimes when I think about it too much it gets a little scary to think of how I am going to do things with two. I am sure it will be great. Right now we are just excited and are enjoying our time with Elizabeth.

Christmas Round 1 (The Garrison side)

I hadn't realized until I had a child of my own just how much fun Christmas is for children. I remember how much fun it was for us growing up. The presents, the anticipation and of course playing with all the new stuff. Elizabeth is just starting to realize that joy and excitement and it was so much fun to watch her with it all. My Mom (Gigi) came in the Thursday before Christmas and there was shopping, cooking, playing and much more. My Dad (Papa) came in Sunday afternoon. It was a lot of fun times and Elizabeth was always walking around saying "upsy" and "book" she always wanted to be on someone's lap reading books.

Elizabeth is Walking

We stayed with the Miller's while we were in Denver and they are very excited to say that Elizabeth started walking at their house. She has been taking a few steps here and there for a while now. But she is for sure walking now. Dale and Marie were able to get her walking a little bit with some incentives. Everyday she is getting more and more daring with it. She'll be running before we know it. You can see for yourselves.

Many travels and a visit from Grandma

Gigi and Elizabeth watching Praise Baby

So it has been over a month since I have put anything on the blog and a lot has been going on. My Mom, Gigi, came for a visit the weekend before Thanksgiving. Then we went to Albuquerque for Thanksgiving to see Dale, Marie and Grandma Parkes. It was a great trip and we even got to see snow since we aren't sure if we will see much of it here in Tulsa. I wanted to get some pictures of us in the snow but it was REALLY cold and Elizabeth wasn't feeling very good. We got back from Thanksgiving and had to make a trip to Denver for Richard's Grandfather's funeral. We are traveled out and hope to be home for a while now.

Our Halloween Monkey

Monkey on the Loose

We decided that it would be appropriate for Elizabeth to be a monkey for halloween since she is so attached to her monkey. She didn't seem to mind the costume so much until she noticed that there was something on her head and then she insisted on pulling it off. We went to our neighbors house for a potluck dinner for the neighborhood and then everyone went to their own houses to prepare for the trick or treating. We didn't take her out for trick or treating, instead she helped us hand out candy to the people who came here. She wasn't so sure about the doorbell ringing every 2 minutes. Overall, we had a fun time.

Our first guests

This past weekend we had our first guests to stay in our house. My good friend Stephanie and her family came to visit. Elizabeth loved having some friends to play with. Caroline and Claire did a great job keeping her entertained and loving on her while she and Cole just enjoyed playing. It was really fun to have some familiar faces around and to welcome people into our house. We walked to the park and Elizabeth mostly enjoyed playing on the slide and thought is was really funny when Claire sent rocks sliding down it. She even thought she would see how they tasted. Stephanie's kids are so sweet and loved to play with Elizabeth. Saturday we decided to go back to the pumpkin patch so their kids could feed the animals and ride the ponies. It was a hit. I think we will have to do it again now that we live a lot closer to each other. Here are a few pictures from the weekend.

I LOVE THE SLIDE!!!

Caroline and Claire playing with Elizabeth

Cole and Elizabeth bonding over the slide

You think these should be eaten?

Elizabeth sized pumpkin

Caroline and Claire feeding the goats

Daddy's and little ones watching the girls on the pony ride

Trip to the Pumpkin Patch

So this weekend we decided to go out to the pumpkin patch for a few pumpkins and pictures. We also got to feed some animals. It was pretty funny to see Elizabeth at first she wasn't too sure of those animals up close, but as time went on and she saw us continue to let them eat out of our hands, she was ready to do the same. By the end she was sticking her hand out to them. She also enjoyed sitting among the pumpkins which made for some cute pictures. They had pony rides also, but we thought that would be better for her next year. Anyway, here are a few of the pictures...

New House, New Teeth...I'm One!!!

Now that we are settled into our new house I thought I would get some pictures up so that you all could see where we are and what the little peanut is up to...

As you can see, she discovered the toilet paper roll, while staying at the hotel for the first week.

I LOVE to climb the stairs, about 2o times a day...come get me!

Help, I'm in jail!

She is one now and seems to get cuter by the minute. She is very busy and wears us out. She seriously will climb the stairs all day long if we let her. Her vocabulary is also growing like crazy. She says "ball", "night, night", "Uh oh", "ruff, ruff", "Hi", "Bye Bye", "Duck", "Bath", "Dada", "Mama", "stop" and a few other things. Sometimes we just watch her and laugh. The other night she was trying to tell us that she was ready for bed by just laying down on the floor and when she saw that it made us laugh she would say night night and lay down for a good couple of minutes. We got a good laugh out of it and then we put her to bed. She also decided to start getting a couple new teeth on the day we left Denver, and last week her top two middle teeth finally came through!!!

Our House

I know I promised pictures of the house several weeks ago, but I had to uncover the cable for the camera in one of our 300+ boxes. So, now I have it and here are some pictures. We are really blessed with the street that we ended up living on. There are a lot of families with little ones and there is even a little girl that is only 4 days younger than Elizabeth. There is also a couple that consider themselves to be the "Grandparents of the Street" and Elizabeth has made fast friends of them. We try to take walks every night so that we can get to know our neighbors since everyone seems to love being outside.

This is the outside of our new house

We love our new kitchen

A nice big master bedroom with a fireplace...ooooohhhhh!

The Entry way

A guest bedroom waiting to be filled with guests...hint, hint!

We made it!!!

Well, we just wanted to let everyone know that we made it to Tulsa. We watched our entire house get packed up and loaded onto an 18 wheeler and drive off last Tuesday. We think our life is sitting in Houston, TX right now. We drove out of Denver and said goodbye to the mountains on Wednesday afternoon and pulled into Tulsa on Thursday. (We split the drive into two days for the sake of the little one.)

As soon as we arrived we did a walk through of our house and spent Friday trying to get everything done from drivers licenses to buying appliances for the house. We feel very certain that this is where we are supposed to be, but I don't think it has all set in yet. Elizabeth is adjusting well and is just thankful to not be strapped in her car seat for hours at a time. We will close on the house on Thursday and the movers come on Friday. I was hoping to get pictures of the house up but our cord to download the pictures is somewhere in a BIG truck. So I will try to get them up as soon as I can. (That could be several weeks, with all the craziness.)

In the process of all this, Elizabeth is trying to learn to walk and has more words everyday it seems. The best is when she is alone in the backseat of the car she will carry on conversations with herself and then just start laughing. We are so blessed with such a funny girl.

That is all for now from Oklahoma.