State Fair

We were able to go to the State Fair while we were in town & it was so much fun. Here are some pictures:


They had an awesome petting zoo that we all just loved.

The corn dog was awesome!

Me & Romo

Us with Aikman

And of course the cars

Crafty

On 3 different occasions, Regina & I have gotten together to whip up some adorable little girls clothes. Now I cannot take full credit for these outfits, but I did help:) Regina did 99.8% of the sewing. I attempted once but accidentally sewed my piece wrong side out, so I spent the remainder of the time with the seam ripper. It's probably better that way. But I knew my way around the glue gun & scissors, so that counts for something. Anyway, I am so pleased with the way these turned out & can't wait for it to get a little cooler so Elliot can wear them!

Ruffle shirt with matching flower clip. The flower has a rhinestone piece in the middle.

Love this outfit! I think it will look "glam rock" on E. The flowers on her shirt are actually pins, so I can put them anywhere! And then there's the flower clip at the top. The fun thing about this outfit is that I made myself the flower pins as well so we can match. Some may say that's gay, but I prefer AWESOME! Then you have the adorable leopard baby legs.

Crafting is so much fun when you have someone to do it with. Thanks Regina for all the great ideas & sewing skills!

In a Different Life...

At my parents' house, there is a dog named Winnie, well actually Winifred (Remember her from Tuck Everlasting?). She used to be my dog, until they inherited her. Elliot LOVES Winnie. She's constantly following her around & petting her. Luckily Winnie returns the love by licking her toes. Anyway, I am starting to think that E was a dog in another life. On several occasions, I have fished dog food out of her mouth & removed her hands/feet from the water bowl.

Exhibit A

I know every kid does this, but Elliot takes it to a whole other level.

Exhibit B

Here she is in front of the dog bed. Seems like no big deal, right? Well she likes to actually lay on it. She does this all the time. Even if Winnie is there first, E will just lay on top of her until she moves. I was grossed out the first few times she did it, but have since found it more of a hassle to remove her from the bed than to just let her be.

Exhibit C (1)

Exhibit C (2)

Yes that is a blinged out dog collar you see around my child's neck. No I didn't put it there. This is Winnie's old collar & Elliot has been borrowing it since we've been here. I don't know if it's because it jingles a little or has diamonds on it, but she can always find it & likes to throw it around her neck like a boa.

So case & point, you see what I'm saying. I now know of 2 things to get E for Christmas & neither one is a dog.

The Stockyards

The other day we all went out to the Fort Worth Stockyards. We got there at 11:30 to watch The Herd come through. It only takes about 5 seconds, but it's so cool to watch all the longhorns walk by you.

Lane paid $5 to ride the mechanical bull. He said it was surprisingly hard.

Picture slideshow personalized with Smilebox

Wasted Night in the ER

Today E woke up feeling pretty warm. I thought maybe she was teething (which she is) & didn't really think much of it. She was pretty lethargic all day & would just lay on me. The weird thing is that she had no other symptons. She really wasn't fussy, throwing up or anything like that. Around 4:30, we decided to take her temperature. It was 103.3. I didn't realize it was that high. Lane thought it would be a good idea to take her in to be safe. He says that they say if it's 102.2 or higher, take them in. So off we went. When we got there, they checked her temperature & it was 104.9! They gave her some Tylenol. After a while, I could feel it go down & she perked up a tad. Then we waited in the room for an hour & a half until the dr came in. He rechecked her temperature & it was now 101.2. Even though it did go down a bit, it's still almost 102 & that was with Tylenol. I thought for sure she would have to get her blood drawn or a urine test, but nope. The doc said to just give her Tylenol every 4 hours & watch her. I have to say I was a little ticked off. I mean, when a child's temperature is almost 105, you should definitely run some tests to make sure it's nothing serious. Lane was surprised at what he said as well. He said he's never seen that high of a temperature in the ER & they still run tests. But whatever. Hopefully it will go down & stay down. And if it doesn't, and we have to go back, I think we'll go to a different hospital.

Stairs

E has discovered the stairs at my parents house. It's a little unnerving actually. I don't want her by the stairs, but at the same time I want her to know how to go down them just in case. So I showed her how only once & she took to it like bees to honey. Yesterday I was downstairs in my room & the next thing I know, E is right by my feet. So it's safe to say that she knows how. But I still freak out when I see her headed that way.

On her way up

Sliding down

Just being silly

Please Stay Fall

The other day I was walking to my car & said, "Ahh, it's starting to feel like Fall." Lane looks at me with this confused look & says, "It's 97 degrees." I guess you can tell I'm a real Texan by my comment. But hey, it's been over a hundred degrees all summer plus humidity, so the slightest variance, I notice. But the reason why I told that little story was because it REALLY did feel like Fall today! Wednesday night we had a huge thunderstorm (I'm in Arlington by the way) & with it came some cooler weather. Today was perfection. Most of the day it was 73 degrees & it felt cool. We left the door open all day. It did get up to 85, but it still felt so wonderful. This was the first time in forever that I took E to the park because I could actually bare it outside. I'm really ready for the cooler weather to stay!

Let the Craziness Begin

Today Lane submitted his 15 residency applications. You can apply to as many places as you want. He is applying to the emergency medicine program. This is a big deal. It's the beginning of everything. The next step in this process is interviewing. He will be invited to interview at the schools he applied to. He probably won't interview at all of them, maybe 10. Interviews take place November through January. And once that's all said & done, he will rank the programs. At the same time the programs are ranking all the applicants they have seen. And that's when the "match" happens. We won't know where he's going until around March 15th. But here's a list of the possibilities:
U of Alabama at Birmingham
Emory University- Atlanta, GA
Indiana University- Indianapolis, IN
U of Missouri- Kansas City, MO
Carolinas Medical Center- Charlotte, NC
U of North Carolina- Chapel Hill, NC
Ohio State- Columbus, OH
Temple University- Philadelphia, PA
Vanderbilt University- Nashville, TN
Baylor- Houston, TX
JPS- Fort Worth, TX
UT Southwestern- Dallas, TX
UT Houston- Houston, TX
U of Utah- Salt Lake City, UT
U of Virginia- Charlottesville, VA

AH-MAZING!

Yesterday my dad showed me an article in the paper about a little cupcake shop in Hudson Oaks (between Weatherford & Alvarado). So the next day (today) we were in the car driving the 35 minutes to get there. Yes I know that's a long way to go for a sweet treat when there's so many close by, but that was part of the fun. Let me just say that Ultimate Cupcake was worth the 35 miles it took us to get there. We got a dozen assorted cupcakes. They only have 7 flavors, but they are delicious. My personal favorite is pumpkin. Sooooo good! I'm cutting myself off today because I have already eaten 2. I know that doesn't sound like a lot, but they are so decadent that I couldn't eat any more. Not that I needed more. Don't worry I replaced cupcakes for lunch. Hey it's better than eating that in addition to. Anyway, you all are in luck because you can order these divine cupcakes & have them mailed to you! I may just do that at a later date.

Elliot's 12 Month Stats

Weight: 19 lbs 1 oz--20%
Height: 30"--80%
Head: 17.25"--15%

Doctor said she is doing beautifully. It's hard to believe she's only gained 2 lbs & grown 2 inches since her 9 month appointment. I feel like she's so heavy! Her head is still on the small size, but she's growing on her own little curve so that's ok. And her head looks proportionate to her body, except in the picture above. It does look a bit on the small side. LOL!

Moms Gone Wild!

This weekend we had a little getaway with just us moms! It was so nice & relaxing to just be around good friends & have good conversations. We stayed at Paige's parents' lake house in Horseshoe Bay (Austin area) & it was amazing. The house itself was gorgeous! As we were getting the tour I was speechless. Every room had a flat screen tv & king bed with a master bath. I don't think I've ever stayed at a nicer place.


The living room area. Comfy couches all around.

View off the balcony.

Beautiful kitchen.

I have to say I was a bit of a bathroom whore on Saturday. If you've lived in an apartment for the past 3 1/2 years, you would be too. So here is shower #1.

Shower #2. Now this here is a special one. It's a steam shower. I had water shooting at me from all angles!

Unfortunately I was unable to try out this bad boy. There just wasn't enough time in the day to take shower/bath #3. I'll just have to imagine what it would have been like.

The upstairs balcony. This is where we spent our evenings having hilarious girl talk.

We hit the beach Saturday afternoon. It sits right on Lake LBJ. We had lunch out here.

Paige (Hostess)

Regina & I

All of us baking in the sun.

We decided to take a dip in the pool.

Us with our fruity drinks!

After the beach, we went into town to do a little shopping. I got lucky & found the cutest top (I'm wearing it in the group pics) & some sexy heels. We then hit up this yogurt shop. Regina & I shared a Cake Batter yogurt with heath bar, butterfinger, cheesecake bites, chocolate, caramel, & butterscotch syrup. I've never had anything better in my life!

At night girl time til 2 in the morning! It was so funny because Lane had it in his head that we were going to go out to these clubs & really party it up. I died laughing when I heard that. Who does he think I am? Besides, this was way better than any club I've been to.

Paige & Amy

Kristen & Allison

Regina & I

Dressed & ready for dinner. We ate at this fancy restaurant called Yachtclub. The food was delicious!

Amy, Regina, Me

I am IN LOVE with this picture. Paige has some mad skills. Call her to take your pictures!

Kristen, Paige, Amy

Allison & Paige

The whole group

Us trying to be funny

Farewell ladies! Hopefully this will become an annual event. A HUGE thank you to Paige & her generous parents!

Elliot's 1!

My sweet baby girl is 1 year old today! I cannot believe it. She is so fun to be around. She's starting to walk, babbles a ton & constantly smiles. Unfortunately, today was a different story. I wanted this day to be perfect, but I should have known that it would go all wrong. Good thing she won't remember this birthday.
The first thing that should have tipped me off as to how things would play out today was the smell of burning batter. Last night I was making her cake & I filled the pan up too much & batter was all over the bottom of my oven. I quickly put a cookie sheet under then pan & let it bake. Let's just say the cake turned out horribly. I made one of those giant cupcakes. I had it in my mind that that would be the "birthday cake" everyone would get each year. But I'm scrapping that idea. It's a poor excuse of a cake.
The morning started off pretty normal. Lane was at school & she was happy. By the time 12 'o clock rolled around, she was so whiny (which is very uncharacteristic of her) & Lane still wasn't home. I put her down early & she never fell asleep. Lane finally got home an hour & a half late. Since she wasn't sleeping, we got her back up & decided to do her birthday cake. I seriously took 15 pictures & she didn't smile in 1! And she was still fussy. I went ahead & cut her a piece of cake & fed it to her. Then she started to cry when it was all gone. So I started to cut her another piece of cake. All of a sudden it falls on the floor. And THAT was the straw that broke this camel's back! At that point I was so frustrated. I looked at Lane & said, "I'm getting really mad." Then I proceeded to stab the knife into the cake & go into my room & cry. That's right. I was crying in my room & Elliot was crying in the kitchen. I'm sure Lane was SO glad that he came home. Yes I was a bit dramatic, but I was so excited for her birthday & was so upset that she wasn't enjoying it. I finally pull myself together & by this time it was 1pm, so I put her down for a nap. I thought it would be a good idea if I took one as well. Lane had to leave to go back to school at 2:30 & won't be back until 11pm. So he was home for a whopping 2 hours. Not his fault. Just another frustration. After our naps, things were much better. And all is right in the world again.

Here she is pre-tantrums

Cake time

Post tantrums

Happy birthday Elliot! I still love you :)

First Steps

This slideshow design made with Smilebox On Sunday, Elliot took what I consider her first REAL steps. I think it was about 3. I finally captured a worthy video to post.