Eisley's 1st Thanksgiving

Another slideshow!

We had a great Thanksgiving. Hope yours was too!

(Again, I recommend "popping" the slideshow out with that middle button)
Eisley's 1st Thanksgiving

Eisley's Exciting Week

What an exciting week for a baby!

We drove to visit Auntie Bea and "The Cousins". Ayla was very motherly towards Eisley:

Indy kept patting Eisley on the head. It was too cute!

And Eisley loved her maternal cousins right back:


The kittens were very entertaining:


And getting so big!

They sleep in odd places:

Justin bought me some tulips that have funny fuzzy edges:

Eisley slept with her new best friend, Hillary Clinton, which daddy won for her:



Tomorrow is Thanksgiving, hope you all have a good one!

Happy Birthday Eisley's Blog!!!

This blog is officially 1 year old!

It's incredible for me to look back, to think that a year ago we were just beginning to consider the concept of "Eisley". She was still a distant reality.

In the last year, this blog has morphed dramatically. I started it originally as a way to journal my pregnancy. Honestly, I never expected myself to keep up with it. But it became my vice. My addiction. I blogged my pregnancy, there's plenty of hormonal rants if you go and read back.

I didn't post many pictures back then, as you may remember, because we used to not have a digital camera (thanks again to my mom, dad, sister, and Justin for going in on a great digital camera for my last birthday - I'm so glad I have it!

Anyway. I'm so glad I created this blog. I think it will be so awesome someday for Eisley to come back and read about the story of "her" (and possibly someday her siblings) and how much her mom and dad loved her. Not that this blog could ever express that emotion adequately enough.

Yesterday was also a very special day for us because we learned that Eisley's godmother, Angela, is growing Eisley a little GIRLfriend! Mara Jade will be here in April, hooray!

{ Our Weekend }

Just thought I'd post some pictures from our weekend! Enjoy ;-)


And I made silhouettes, see more of this at my *other* blog!

The Lighting of the Star

Us, tonite:
I love living in Castle Rock, because we're less than 20 minutes from Denver (I'm a city girl at heart), but we get all those small town benefits as well. Like tonite, to kick off the holiday season Castle Rock had the annual "Lighting of the Star".

See, Castle Rock is named after the butte in the middle of town, and during the holidays, we light up a big star on top it it. Santa does, in fact. It's a big party in downtown Castle Rock. We missed the lighting ceremony, because it was at 5pm, when Justin gets off work, but we strolled downtown when he got home. Here's some of the pictures I took tonite

Here's the star, off in the distance on the "Castle Rock".
One of my favorite stores, The Barn, was open for the festivities:

There was a string quartet playing The First Noel, it made for lovely ambiance:

The Castle Rock fire station held a free chili dinner, which I thought was a quaint small town touch:

Here's one of Castle Rock's most historic buildings, which is owned by the Castle Cafe:

Eisley slept the whole time, I tell you, her stroller is magical:

The One-Hand Wonder

Here's why I'm getting really good at doing things with one hand. Including typing (I'm sure all moms get good at this, but I'm impressed by myself.)

I can also do laundry and dishes with one hand. I know, talent.

There's just nothing better at 12pm than a snoring, adorable baby clinging to your chest.

This morning this family got up and cuddled, smiled at each other (I know, that sounds totally and utterly corny, but if you woke up to a happy grinning baby everyday this would be your corny life, too.)

We went on a walk, with the dogs. When we got back, Eis was sleeping soundly so I tidied up the house, Justin made breakfast. He makes breakfast every morning these days, usually scrambled eggs with either toast or oatmeal. He says he loves cooking. Fine by me!

I'm so glad Justin doesn't go to work until 10am, especially since it gets dark so early these days. We have a few hours in the morning to do corny things like smile at each other and eat scrambled eggs.

And now, for the random pictures:



Happy Tuesday.

FREE!!!

There's two types of "free" I'm gonna talk about in this post. I'll start with the exciting one...

My sister alerted me tonite that the big O (and by that I mean Oprah... what'd you think I was talking about???) is giving away FREE Snapfish photo books (REALLY nice ones, I love Snapfish!) Not sure if there's a limit to how many they're giving away, but hopefully you can grab yours here: http://www.snapfish.com/info18

The second type of free I want to talk about is a bit of a mini-rant. Here it goes...

Tonite on the news I saw a blurb on a topic that, come every November/December, really grinds my gears! Yes. It was that stupid and dreaded topic regarding some complainers out there who find it "OFFENSIVE" for city property to have any Christmas themed decor.

Oh PLEASE!

I find it interesting that people seem more upset by the Christ Child displayed in public areas than the hurtful things all these politicians have been saying in the media during recent months.

Well I've got news for you complainos - and I honestly think there's a very small percentage of society that actually oppose the Christmas spirit, so I resent that the news even bothers to cover it, but hey they love a good controversy - this country was based on Christian values! Luckily, we all have the FREEdom to believe and practice whatever religion we like. But like it or not, it's practically a tradition with our government. Our forefathers were Christians. We've elected Christian presidents almost every 4 years. Our money even has the word "God" on it. Gasp!

But I just don't get it... what's so offensive about a nativity scene? The whole message of Christmas and the Christ Child is God's LOVE for humanity. You don't have to believe it, but why is it offensive?

Ok. I'm done. I'm trying to keep my rants to a minumum but I just couldn't help getting on my soapbox regarding this one...

Here's a picture of a certain cutie to cheer us up now:

Meet Bea

I've seen other blogs do this and I think its a great idea, so every few weeks or so I'd like to feature one of our loved ones - Eisley's relatives - and introduce them to you!

Who better to start with then my sister:

Bea with newborn Eisley

Known as: Auntie Bea. Bea is short for Beatrice, which is not her name. Her name is Brittany.

She filled this out for us:

Education: often arbitrary, but worthwhile all the same

Worst habit? I guess I should say coffee. That's supposed to be bad, right? I don't feel bad about it. Coffee makes me happy.

What is your biggest accomplishment? I knew you were going to ask me this. Honestly I feel like if I can make it through the day without losing my patience or my temper with my girls, that is a huge accomplishment. Writing, and school, all the other things that someone on the outside looking in might call an accomplishment--that stuff is fun for me, and sometimes--often--easy. A true accomplishment is devoting one full day to my daughters and managing to do it without losing my cool. I have two toddlers, ok? It's hard for me!

Me & Bea in high school. Bea was a great role model for me back then, I hope Eisley has a role model like her someday...

How would you use $10,000 right now? Some to pay off debt but most to go on a vacation in Italy, Spain, and the south of France. And a long afternoon of shopping for paperbacks.

What is your dream job? Full time writer.

What is your best childhood memory? I could never pick just one. My favorite memories are of things we did together as a family; camping trips and drives in the mountains, Saturday's at the Art Museum. Hamburgers on the grill and guacamole in the kitchen and Garrison Keillor on the radio. Some of my best memories are of our trips to California, New Mexico, and Seattle. Dad buying me Lord of the Rings. Mom taking me shopping for my 14th birthday. I left the bag of stuff she bought me at the pizza-by-the slice joint. It was still there when we rushed back.

Favorite vacation: the five days I spent in Paris. I love traveling even more than writing.

Here we are last month at Boo at the Zoo.

Nicest thing anyone has done for you: my family supports my dreams; my husband takes care of the girls a WHOLE LOT on weekends so that I can write. Somebody once gave us a car. One time a guy I didn't know walked up to me at church and handed me fifty bucks, and that fifty bucks was all we had in the bank for a week. A friend of mine once gave me money spontaneously at another time when we really needed it. Indy once wrapped her arms around me when I was frustrated and cranky at the airport after 6 days in California and sang to me, and stroked my hair.

Favorite thing about your husband: this is private! I like to keep my most special feelings to myself. I will say that I appreciate being able to go out and write nearly every weekend morning for almost four years a whole heck of a lot.

At my wedding in 2004.

Dream Vacation: Ok well since we're dreaming: Iceland first to see Reykjavik (say RECK-ee-a-VEK). Then onto Ireland, see Dublin, than do a little hiking at a place where the people that own the property feed you scones and tea afterwards. Then Sweden, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands, France, Spain, Italy, Greece, the Czech Republic. That about covers it. For that trip.

Favorite Place to Spend Money: bookstores! by far, by far, by far.

Favorite possession: my ipod, and my painting by my dad that hangs in our living room. Song that best describes your life: I'm going to be enigmatic and say "Past the Mission" by Tori Amos.

Thank you, Auntie Bea, for doing my first survey. ;-)

I love you, big sis!

This Week - According to Eisley

I thought I'd do something different this week. Instead of uploading a bunch of cute pictures, I threw them together in a slideshow. Enjoy.

(I recommend "popping" it out with that middle button on the lower right)
Eisley's Week - Episode1

Squeaky Clean

Eisley loves baths.
She also loves watching TV. Is that bad?

What I want for Christmas

A Griddleman!

Thought we could all use a little laugh...

Happy Voting Day

It's election day! Duh, right? I'm glad all the annoying commercials and mailings will now cease, until the next election season, that is.

Justin and I voted a couple weeks ago via mail in ballots. I used to register as Republican but this year when I registered to vote (since we've moved) I chose to be Independent. There's things I dislike about both parties....

That said, I voted for McCain.

He wasn't my favorite choice for the Republican nominee, but I tend to agree with him on most issues.

I disagree with a lot of Obama's stances. I disagree with a few of McCain's, too.

One of my biggest issues with Obama is regarding the abortion issue. Obama voted against banning partial birth abortions in 2007... yikes! I know, I know it's not really an issue on the ballots and they're not about to make it legal, but still partial birth abortion (actually, all forms of abortion) really bother me. And Obama stands for it. Thinking about it this morning after it came up on the news, I got all riled up inside. Above is a picture of Eisley in the womb. Her heart beat when she was just 5 weeks.

If you're Pro-Choice, I think it's only right and decent for you to know exactly what you're standing for. I won't go into it here, it's way too disturbing and makes me cry, but *I have* educated myself on what really goes on in partial birth abortions and IN MY OPINION (because it's my blog and I can opinionate if I want to) if you are okay with partial birth abortions after learning what they are, you are literally a monster in my eyes.

Think that's harsh? Then you obviously don't know what partial birth abortions are. It's a horrific crime.

If you're pro-choice but not for partial birth abortions, well, I don't get it. How can you say one week this baby can be slain, but the next week it deserves life because it's now old enough? Or is it simply the method we go about using to kill it? I watched a video recently of an ultrasound done during an abortion when the baby was only 10 weeks old... I won't mention details (even though I think if you're pro-choice you should be forced to learn them) because it left me utterly disturbed for days. Let's just say, that 10 week old baby fought for it's life, as much as a 10 week old fetus could.

In the case of rape, first of all, it's incredible rare that someone gets pregnant from rape. But I will say, I've met adults who were the product of rape. They are wonderful people. How could I say to them, your mother was raped and thus you shouldn't have been allowed to live? God promises in the Bible that He turns tragedy into miracles. This is the ultimate scenario for that!

So anyway, putting the abortion topic aside, I just couldn't bring myself to vote for a man with morals like that. It might not be a big issue to you, but it sure is for me.

Jeremiah 1:5 "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you."
1 Corinthians 6:12-13 – “You may say ‘I am allowed to do anything.’ But I reply, ‘Not everything is good for you.’ And even though ‘I am allowed to do anything,” I must not become a slave to anything…But our bodies were not made for sexual immorality. They were made for the Lord, and the Lord cares about our bodies.”

(And at the risk of sounding snarky... I don't think we should get to pick and choose only the verses we like and agree with in the Bible, after all. God makes it pretty clear where He stands, in my view of things.)

No matter who wins, I pray God continues to watch over my beloved country.

Kittens & Crafts

First, the kittens are huge! At only a few weeks old, they've already quadrupled in size.



The nice thing about weekends is that Justin and I can take turns watching Eisley and working on projects. Justin was able to work on the car while I watched Eisley. I, surprise surprise, did some crafting.

We even found the time to rearrange some furniture, which I've been dying to do for some time now.

I made pumpkin bread and muffins using this recipe. They turned out really well!

I made myself a new wallet using this tutorial. I love it! It's definitely not the best quality but I'm going to make more to sell if I can. The first is always the trial run and I learn via trial and error from it.


And Eisley napped. A little bit. (She also cried a bit but we didn't get pictures of that so you'll have to take my word for it.)