Thanksgiving 2010

Thanksgiving 2010 was in the mountains of North Carolina and we had a great time with family and friends who are close enough to be family.  Liza and Nana made cookies with Liza's favorite part - putting on the icing.  If you look closely you can see they spelled Liza in cookies, Meg in cookies but somehow Nana forgot how to spell Chris so his name is now C-H-I-S. 

Hally and Molly couldn't miss out on the action and Liza had a great time taking them on walks with Nana. 

One day while Daddy was fishing, Nana, Liza and I went to the Grove Park Inn to see the gingerbread houses and we were amazed by the talented artists.  Liza's favorite gingerbread house looked like SpongeBob and I broke my camera before getting a picture of it. 

Auntie Em and Liza revived their Thanksgiving tradition and made a gingerbread house together. 

Spending time with family and friends was the highlight of the trip.  We are so glad to have the opportunity for so many wonderful people to be a part of Liza's life - thanks to all!  Judy and Dick came from DC and are always a HUGE help in the kitchen.  



Emmie, Mario and Phyllis were checking out the newly installed TV (thanks Uncle Jerry) and looking up things on the Internet. 

 There was no shortage of activities to partake in - some went hiking...

Others went bowling...

Others worked on their computer...

While others ate and drank...

Regardless of what activities you participated in, how many turns you took cleaning up dishes, walking dogs or cooking up a storm a fun time was had by all. 

We also celebrated our 11 year wedding anniversary and my Mother's birthday.  So many reasons that make being with family and friends extra special.

Thanks for having us and we look forward to next year!

Carving Pumpkins

As usual Liza's Daddy goes the extra mile for her.  Pumpkin carving was no exception.  Bair found Dora and Swipper templates and together they undertook the carving task.  After about 2 minutes Liza told her Daddy, this is boring , I am going to go play, come get me when you're done! 

Here are the finished products! 

After pictures we headed to the zoo for Night Eyes.  Children come in costume, trick or treat and see some of the animals. 

One of Liza's favorite parts of the zoo is the petting zoo.  With each trip Liza increases her comfort level with feeding the animals. 

I love seeing Liza with all the pumpkins...it's one of my favorite times of year for this reason.  She is just so cute!

Camping Trip

Where do we start?  We are so far behind on blogging.  I have no chance of catching number of posts for 2009 but I'm going to give it my best attempt. 

Our last post was in early October and since then Bair and Liza have been camping, Halloween has come and gone and Liza just gets cuter and cuter. 

Bair and his college roommate, Dan, have been talking about a camping trip.  I haven't been helping with the planning of the trip because camping and I don't necessarily get along well.  But, I knew Bair hoped to give Liza the experience.  Dan's wife felt about the same as I did so we were thrilled when they decided to make it a father and child camping trip.  Dan and his two boys and Bair and Liza met in western Iowa and had a great time.  I'm now convinced that some of my tendencies are rubbing off on Bair.  When they arrived at the cabin there were too many dead bugs for him so he went to the closest store and bought a hand-held vacuum.  

Not only was Bair excited about camping he was also pleased about testing out his dutch oven cooking skills.  He had been practicing in the back yard with the fire pit and from what I heard he did a great job.  Here is Liza showing off her Daddy's pineapple upside down cake. 

I think all 3 children had a great time at the playground within the campground.  From what I heard they made several trips there.  

Thanks Packard family for a great time!  I know Bair and Liza are looking forward to this annual adventure. 

Sparky's House

Thursday night during the Homecoming Parade Liza spotted Sparky, the fire dog, and she's been in love ever since.  She talks about Sparky a great deal and when I brought home a flyer about the annual fireman's breakfast with Sparky on it she was in heaven.  Liza is so enamoured that not getting to see Sparky was a motivator for good behavior.  Sunday morning finally arrived and we headed to the fire station (or Sparky's house to Liza) to see Sparky.  As parents, we were nervous that Sparky might not be circulating through the crowd.  We both breathed a sigh of relief when we saw him through the window.  Liza was about to burst with excitement! 

Shortly after we crossed the threshold of the building Liza was given a fire person's hat (thanks Uncle Pat) and she who normally squeals about head gear was thrilled to have it.  She couldn't stop grinning! 

After we took her coat off (yes Mother it is the one I wore when I was little) so everyone could see the precious outfit that the Roberts gave us when she was born (we kept up with it and now it fits) she was on the hunt for Sparky.  Waiting in line was hard for Liza but as long as Sparky was in her sight all seemed right in her world.   

And then...Sparky came over to see her and even let us take his picture with her. You can see on her face how excited she is.  I wish I had gotten better pictures but I think our readers get the point. 

Congratulations to the fire department and their record turn-out.  We were told 1,600+ and that bested previous by about 400 - way to go!  And thank you Sparky for making our little girl so very happy. 

Grinnell Tigers Homecoming

I thought Bair was joking when we talked on Tuesday about his being in the Homecoming parade on Thursday!  He wasn't -- Bair was asked to drive one of the College's new Hertz Connect cars and he told them he could, but he'd need to put a car seat in it.  I'm thinking that's really responsible realizing we need safe transportation to Liza - way to go Bair and then he breaks out this question...who do you think we could ask to sit with Liza in the back seat to entertain her?  Hello...me me me...I'm her Mommy and I'm certainly not going to have everyone in town think I'm too busy at work to be with my family in the parade!  So a family outing it was...

Here we are waiting for the parade to begin and Liza is sporting her first Grinnell Tigers t-shirt.  Thanks to our friend Stephanie at Awards Unlimited I walked in at 2:15 pm and was out by 2:25 pm with customized Tiger clothing for Liza. 

In this picture, Bair is standing just out of frame and no matter how much he asks her to look at me and smile, she is reserving her grins for him. 

   
It was strange being in the parade because you couldn't see any of the other floats but Liza certainly enjoyed waving and occasionally roaring like a Grinnell Tiger. 

Liza had a great time and was disappointed when Sparky, the fire dog, was gone. We told her he had to go to sleep because it was his bedtime. About an hour later, after we've had dinner, we're driving home and Liza says Ssshhhhhh very loudly. We asked her why did we need to be quiet and she said because Sparky is sleeping here - so very cute!

Working in Mommy's office

Bair has a meeting every Tuesday night so Liza often comes to my office to work.  She loves doing "her work on the computer" and seeing the pictures of herself on Mommy's wall.  She's not allowed to touch the keys so she keeps that hand right in the one space she knows she can touch.  Liza regularly inches it towards the keys but does her best to follow the rules.

We had high hopes that Liza was going to make it through her first reward chart and earn a big reward.  Unfortunately for all of us she didn't earn 15 smiley faces this week.  We are all dealing with the disappointment and I think Liza is handling it best of all!  I think next time out we need a less complicated system that doesn't last for 7 night-nights. 



Long overdue and no time to post...

Life is crazy in the Bair household!  I'm temporarily helping out another division at work and that means Bair is holding down the fort amazingly well.  Tonight he and Liza called so we could say our prayers on the phone together.  Everyday life has happened since our last post and there is no way I can recap everything.  I will share a now famous LB quote -- "Mommy if you give me a new DVD I won't cry.  If you don't give me one I will cry."  She has manipulation down pat already!  She also knows how to get to her Daddy by saying to him in a sweet voice, right before she is about to get in trouble, I love you Daddy!  Heaven help us. 

In late August we enjoyed a great vacation on our favorite SC beach (thanks Mom and Daddy).  It was wonderful to spend time with family (yeah for Auntie Em and Mario) and to help Liza build sandcastles.  She's still not so sure about the ocean waves but the creek is her playground. 

Here are a few random pictures of our vacation...wish I had more time for an in-depth post...you'll just have to take what you can get!

Instead of playing putt putt Liza is checking out the giraffe's water hole. 

By far one of Liza's favorite activities -- the yellow submarine!

A trip to the beach isn't complete without a Dora bathing suit and Liza couldn't get enough of hosing the sand off after coming in from the beach.