Eliza goes potty

So lately, Eliza has expressed interest in the potty. She loves to flush and watch things go down. (luckily mostly toilet paper.) I decided that she is still a little young to be potty training, but I was at Target and decided to get a potty chair. We got home and she wouldn't leave the thing alone. She wanted to sit on it, put it on her head, put her toys in it. So when I went to change her diaper I sat her on it. She sat there for probably 20 minutes. I couldn't believe she sat there that long. I encouraged her to go, but no luck. Then when Josh got home we were getting her ready to go to bed and sat her on it again and she went!!! She was so excited and so were we. I know it will still be awhile but it's a start! Way to go Eliza!!

Eliza Paige...

We have been harassed to put up some recent pictures of Eliza. So here they are.
We love Eliza to death. She is such a fun and active little girl. Active is probably an understatement. She is CRAZY!!! She is so social, loves everyone and is not afraid to tell you what she thinks. She is very intelligent and picks up on things very fast. She has quite the vocabulary... her new favorite word is "no", "more" and "mine" here are a few more of her favorite words.... doggie, puppy, mommy, daddy, hot, boot, eye, nose, apple, ut ohh, nana, papa. She also signs a few words like hungry, all done, bird, more.
She loves books and can sit in the car for hours "reading" them, as we found when we drove the 15 hours to Utah. Here a few "recent" pictures of Liza.



I love that her hair fits into a ponytail. Look at all that hair!!

Eliza loves her friends. This is her and Kendall from church.

Our little Family at Thanksgiving.

Eliza LOVES ladders. Actually anything she can climb on. This was at Lowes. I wasn't watching for 30 seconds and there she was on the third step.

My parents and all the grandkids. That was a wild day!

Liza and her two cousins. It was fun to see them play together.

Oh, uncle Adam. We wish we could see you more often!

Eliza loves animals. She is obsessed with our two dogs. Sometimes Ill come in the kitchen and she is reading them books. She lays all over them and likes to ride them like a horse. We got to see a real horse and she loved riding him and touching his skin.

Halloween. She was a skunk. A very stinky skunk.

Carving pumpkins. She loves her daddy.

She is sassy!!

Birthing Pups

I know... totally lame that I haven't posted and now I'm posting about our dog giving birth. It is 4:02 a.m. and the puppy count is 6. (since 2 a.m.) 4 yellows, 2 chocolates. No Blacks yet!! Oh, wait...... another chocolate...7 total.


Babe having contractions

The night before

Finally......

A new one!! The way Im going the next post will be when Eliza goes to college!! So, we have been super busy. Josh is working like crazy. He is gone a lot more than we would like, but we so appreciate all his hard work and willingness to support our family. We got a chance to spend a week with my family and a week with Josh's family at the Oregon Coast. It was so much fun and good to see everyone. ( we missed the Evan's though!!) Here are some random pictures of our family since...... July i guess

The Fam at the beach.
Liza loved the sand. She couldn't get enough. Thanks Mindy and Ty for the cute suit from Hawaii!!
The water was FREEZING. She still couldn't get enough.
Sad face.
On the stairs. She's been climbing them for awhile now, but just learned to crawl down. It seems she learns something new everyday. She is walking 8 steps or so by herself, her favorite word is "dog-dog" and loves to "woof-woof" too. She loves to sing and do motions to songs and can't wait to lead the music on Sunday. (with help from daddy.)

Liza and Daddy- Notice her teeth. She has 8 and 2 mollars are poking through!!!
Cousins Kylee and Kyla. We had so much fun playing with them. They are only a couple months apart.
All the cousins. There are 42 plus one once removed!!
I wish this is what i looked like!! Josh's older sister Jenny and Liz.
Hiking at Cape lookout.

Liza when you say "hug your dolly"
Our "precious" dogs. Babe and Lizzy. They are good dogs, just a little destructive!!

When Eliza sees a fork, she insists on using it. Usually when this happens she ends up looking like this. She actually does get a few things in her mouth.
Daddy and Liza at our garage sale. I asked Josh to dress her, she has a million cute clothes and he came down with her in this. Jammies!!!!! (it was like 85 degrees that day!)

Missing Dad....

Josh left on Monday morning for a big backpacking trip with the scouts. We miss him badly. This morning Liza woke up and looked in the bed next to me and said "DADA". She loves her Daddy. They definetly have a special bond. We haven't even heard from him so hopefully he is surviving.

My mom came today to stay with me while Josh is gone. We got Eliza's room all painted and tomorrow we will put the baseboard on and possibly go look for some furinture. I am so excited to get it done!!!( maybe Josh being gone isn't all bad!!)

Is it really almost June???

Okay... I admit I am terrible about keeping up on this blog but you have to give me a break when I don't even have a computer in my house!! I figured I should post a bunch of pictures since Eliza is now 2 months older than the last time I posted. We have been keeping busy with the house, pups, bees, etc. Sorry about all the pictures at once, but we are playing catch up!!


We went to Tri-cities last weekend and Ben and Steph were there and so we got to see Zac and Kylee. Here is Kylee and Liza.... they are about 6 weeks apart... Kylee is such a cutie and oh so chunky. She out weighs Eliza for sure!!
Babe had her third litter of pups. 1 chocolate, 4 yellows and 4 blacks. We were disappointed we didn't get more chocolates, but oh well. they are now 4 weeks and I can't wait till they are gone!!

Liza loves the pups!! She tugs on their ears and pulls their fur. They are good sports!

This was a rare sunny day in Seattle. It is beautiful when its sunny!

Liza and I got a chance to visit with Jill and the kids. They are all so cute and fun to be around. Too bad Liza was cranky the whole time. We miss you guys!

Liza pinning Kylee. She liked to scratch her eyes and put her finger up her nose....Kylee is really too lazy to do anything about it. (just like her uncle josh)

We went to our friends wedding. It was a cold day and again.... Liza was cranky.....


Told ya!!! She had had it by this time. Oh wait......
The reception just put her over the edge. Good thing the bride and groom look so good!!

We have so much fun when we are with Grandma. We wish we could see her more. Josh's elk head finally got done at the taxidermist. We don't have room for it in our small house (darn) so he put it up at sportsman's warehouse. It is HUGE!! the only good thing about it is that if Josh really wants it in our next house, we will have to have vaulted ceilings and a bigger house.
Liza loves her Grandpa Volmer. She lets him sing to her and sits on his lap and likes it.
Josh was teaching Eliza to rap.

She does look cute in the hat though!

Poor Josh. He works all day and then comes home and works on the house.
Will it ever be done???
Ready for some sunshine. (notice she is wearing a full on snow suit in May!!)
Isaiah loves his cousin. Liza just woke up and he thought she needed her hair brushed. We love and miss you dude!!
She learned how to "fake cry." She is really laughing but her face is looks so sad. She is like her daddy.... a piece of work!!!

Eliza sitting up in a chair at a restaurant without a booster or help. She's already showing signs of being independent.

We just love Eliza (as you can see). She is such a joy in our lives and we wouldn't trade her for anything. She is growing up so fast... she crawls and eats by herself.... she is just so much fun.