BYU and Gonzaga vs. the Rain

Last Saturday we got tickets to the BYU v. Gonzaga baseball game and Alumi tailgate party before. The tailgate party was a blast. Balloons, stickers, Cosmo, J-Dawgs, etc kept the girls very entertained. Check out these cute little cougars!

 Just was we were about to head over to the stadium for the game it started pouring. A half hours of hiding in the car, about 2 inches of rain, and an hour rain delay later they started the game. By then we were all a bit damp and it was still raining on and off. Needless to say we only make it though about 2 1/2 innings of the game before the girls were too cold and we headed out. It was fun while it lasted but the final score of this game was Rain - 1, Ballards - 0.

Walkin' and Rindin'

 The other day the girls and I had a fun little walk up the street like this....

 Hazel riding on her bike,

and Eliza pushing the walker. Right as I snapped this picture was honestly the only time Eliza stopped smiling from ear to ear. She loves her walker and is so close to taking her first steps on her own!

No more helmet hair...

As of Friday all of Eliza's head measurements are within normal limits and she is done with her helmet! After 78 days of wearing it her head looks amazing. Check out the before and after pictures:

Before:

 After:

 From the profile pictures you can really see how the flattening on the back of her head was affecting her whole skull. See how far her ear is shifted forward in the before picture? 

Before:

 

After:

 

The adjustment to not wearing the helmet has almost been harder than the adjustment to wearing it. Since Eliza went from barely crawling when she got her helmet to now crawling, standing, and scooting along things she had become rather reckless. Why be careful when bonking your head doesn't hurt? So, she is slowly learning that she does actually need to watch her head haha.

Of princesses, glass slippers, and everyting girly...

 Hazel has hit the princess phase. It has been coming on for a while but now she is in full force. She literally believes she is a princess. And thanks to Cinderella she is obsessed with growing up and marrying the prince. She tells us, "When I grow up I will be taller then I can reach (the door) so I can get married in the temple!" and "There will be bells when I get married in the temple!" It's so cute! I'm glad that she has the part about getting married in the temple down:)

She has been asking about my wedding dress a lot so the other day I let her try it on. She was in heaven! She even put on the heals and successfully walked around for a few minutes. I was impressed.

Two more cute princess quotes...

Hazel has been pretending a pink comb is her magic wand when she is the fairy godmother. Well the other day we were stuck in major traffic and I was annoyed. She took out her comb and said, "I will make these cars move. Bibbity-Bobbity-Boo!"

One night Hazel kept talking about her favortie princess (which changed from minute to minute). Mike's sister Alicia asked her "Who is your favorite prince?" to which she replied "Daddy!!!" Good answer Hazel. Good answer!

One on One Time

My goal everyday is to get the girls down for nap right around the same time. It give me a good hour and a half of uninterrupted time to get chores done, read scriptures, work from home, etc. Plus, it also keeps me sane.

So today when Hazel woke Eliza up after only a half hour I was slightly annoyed. Hazel ended up finally falling asleep but Eliza was wide awake and smiley. Her sweet little smile can melt anyone's heart and instantly I my annoyance was gone.

I ended up having the most wonderful afternoon with Eliza. We snuggled, played, laughed, and hung out while Hazel finished up her nap. It's not often I get much alone time with Eliza. I get time alone with Hazel everyday when Eliza naps in the mornings plus throughout the day when she demands my attention. Even when Eliza needs my attention to eat, have her diaper changed, etc I'm constantly conversing with Hazel. I didn't get anything I planned on done, but my one on one time with Little E was a much better way to spend nap time!

A quick update on the Little E... Tuesday she had a checkup for her helmet and her head is looking great! We have a follow up in 3 weeks but her orthostist is 99% sure she will be done after that day! Hooray! With as slowly as she's been gaining weight I was worried her head wasn't growing very much and she'd be in that thing forever.

She also had her very first tooth break through this morning! She's had teething pains on and off for weeks now but no signs of any teeth. But today when a tooth actually cut through she wasn't grumpy at all:)

Eliza has started saying "hi." You will walk up to her and say "Hi Eliza!" and she will respond with the cutest little "hi" right back to you. I love you Little E! Thanks for the fun afternoon!

Eliza LOVES the Sing-a-Majig that Grandma got her for Easter.

Feel Free to Giggle Along...

I caught these two playing last night. I love how they are becoming friends!

Eliza at 9 months

 

Little E was an excellent nick name for this sweet girl because she definitely is little. She has now officially fallen off the growth charts for her weight. At her 9 month appointment she was a petite 25 3/4" tall (10th percentile) and weighed only 13 lbs 10 oz (below the 5th percentile aka off the chart). I feel like she eats the same amount if not more than Hazel did at this age, but just grows slowly. She is growing though so the doctor isn't worried at all saying she's just petite. 

I would be much more worried about her tiny stature if she wasn't doing amazingly well with everything else. She is now crawling all over the place and pulling up on anything and everything. While we worked for months and months to get her to roll over, she is now a pro and can even push herself up to sitting. This means we often her giggles of two girls playing instead of sleeping at bedtime and find Eliza asleep like this in her crib.  Haha, so doesn't look comfortable to me!

She started signing about a month ago. Her first sign? Daddy! Not milk or more, Daddy. We might have a Daddy's girl on our hands:) She even says "dada" as she signs it. So cute! 

Her little personality become clearer every day. She is much more of a tender heart than Hazel. Little things upset her and she is always very concerned if other people look sad or get hurt. Eliza also has a cute, playful side to her. She plays the "pacifier game" with us often by pulling her pacifier out and attempting to sick it in our mouths but pulling away or taking it back from you and laughing. We love it.

She is such a wonderful addition to our family. It's almost like she's the ying to Hazel's yang. I love the cute little friendship they are developing too. The other day Hazel said (quoting Dora) "Hola, Soy Hazel and this is my best friend Eliza." Melts my heart!

Easter

 We had a wonderful Easter this year! Friday we headed up to Salt Lake for an Easter brunch with my family. My parents hid candy for the girls to find then we dyed eggs. Saturday I took both of the girls to Provo's egg hunt in Pioneer Park. It was a zoo but they loved it! Then Sunday we enjoyed a nice relaxing, spiritually uplifting day of church and of course one last egg hunt from the Easter bunny:)

This was the first year Hazel was quick with the egg hunts. She zoomed around looking for eggs and loved it. Of course, she had to pause and ward off Swiper the Fox because he was trying to swipe her eggs and her giraffe. "Swiper, no swiping!" Can you tell she's on a Dora kick right now?

 Eliza wasn't too excited about the eggs until Grandpa gave her a taste of chocolate. Then she was all about trying to eat the eggs and crying every time we took a basket away from her. At the city egg hunt she heard a little boy yelling "Yay, yay, yay!" and soon she was imitating him. She then said "Yay! Yay!" through the entire egg hunt. It was adorable!

My sweet mom treated the girls to new Easter outfits. They looked adorable! 

I had to sneak Eliza's helmet off to get at least a few "normal" looking pictures:)

I'm so thankful for our nice weekend of enjoying the beautiful weather and remembering the sacrifice and resurrection of our Savior. Here is a wonderful short video that Hazel was enthralled with watching (http://www.lds.org/bible-videos/videos/he-is-risen?lang=eng)

Super Party!

Last Saturday I planned a super hero themed birthday party for my cousin Matt. He loves anything related to comics so it was perfect for him. I had fun making cute little super hero capes for the girls from old t-shirts and they loved it!

Hazel was a super princess (surprise!). She was only convinced to wear the cape after I told her she would be just like Snow White:)
Eliza was Magneto's daughter. For those of you who are superhero illiterate (like me) Magneto wears a helmet. So, we thought it was the perfect role for her. The omega is his symbol plus the e for "Little E!" (My inner nerd has a bit too much fun with this if you can't tell).
Mike's inner nerd went a bit wild too coming up with his Bruce Wayne costume:) I was of Wonder Women (without the skimpy costume)

It was a fun party and we all enjoyed seeing family. Matt loved every minute of it! I call it a success! Best of all, I got some adorable pictures of the girls.

From 15 down to 5!

Title of this post doesn't make sense? This should help...

September 2011 - 15 degrees
(this is a mirror image - Eliza's right side is on the left)

March 2012 - 5 degrees!

Eliza's scoliosis is resolving! Her appointment at Shriner's was yesterday and they said her back looks wonderful. Those last 5 degrees of curve will straighten out in the next few months as she grows. They don't even need to see her again!!!