Out with the Old, In with the New

OLD: NEW: Since Elyse's old car seat was a older Graco Snug n'Ride, it only had two slots to raise the straps. Therefore, since she is getting so long we knew for her safety and comfort it was time to get the next size car seat. Plus getting her in and out with the old one was really getting harder and harder. We found this one at Babies R'Us and love it! It's an Evenflo Symphony and goes all the way to a booster seat at 100 lbs. As you can see from the picture below, Elyse loves it too.

By the way,does anyone know why a child has to be rear facing till 1?

Just Keep Swimming

On Saturday, Elyse attended her first birthday party. Her good friend, Aiden turned one and so she got to go to his pool party. She had lots of funny playing with other kids, watching Aiden so nicely eat his cake and go swimming. I think swimming had to be her favorite thing. She loved it from the moment she got into the water. She cried when it was time to get out. We may just have a future swimmer on our hands.
Kiss from the b-day boy, must have found her cute in her swimsuit. Having a blast. She was kicking her feet and moving her arms. Sharing her duck and having girl talk with Aiden's cousin, Teagen.

Finger Foods

According to Gerber, babies can start eating Graduate Puffs when they can do the grasping technique or are learning to crawl. At 6 months we figured we could still try Elyse on Puffs. She looked as if she enjoyed the taste and it was something she could eat that she saw dad and mom eat too. She eats them after her meal while Nate and I are eating ours. She used to take about 5 minutes to eat one. However, in the last few weeks she eats them so fast as if they are going to disappear. It interrupts our meals a lot, but it gives us more opportunities to sign "more" which we like. Yet she tends to make a high pitch yelp letting us know she wants more.

Elyse's New Favorite Toy

Elyse has a new favorite toy, The Leap Frog Music Table. Elyse's friend, Aiden got this toy over Christmas and because it played music Nate and I assumed in time Elyse would really enjoy it. Therefore, we got one from Craig's List and stored it in the basement. Now that Elyse is beginning to stand on her own while leaning on things, we thought it would be a perfect time to bring out the toy. Well, we were right.... she loves it! The video isn't really exciting it's more to demonstrate that she would rather play with the toy than look at the camera. I give the toy another two weeks and then it goes to the boring pile :)

Happy Anniversary Dad & Mom

Nate, Elyse and I had the opportunity to go down to Keokuk this past weekend to see Nate's parents and celebrate their 35th wedding anniversary. It's such a awesome thing and we felt honored to be apart of it.
Here's to wishing you two a Happy 35th Wedding Anniversary today! Love you lots.

Happy Anniversary

Today marks Nate and my four year wedding anniversary. I can't believe we've been married for four years already! Don't get me wrong, it hasn't been all perfect and happy; but those moments I believe is what helped us get to where we are today. I feel so blessed to have Nate as my husband. He is so genuine, loving, honest, open, giving and respectful. Every year we tend to go to dinner, talk about that year and celebrate. However, I think today's anniversary maybe a little different since we have Elyse. We most likely will spend a quiet night at home, probably go for a walk, and reflect on the last year, which will be a perfect way to celebrate.

Here's to 4 great years of marriage to Nate, my love as well as my best friend and I pray that God blesses us many many more!

Happy Anniversary S & K

Just a short post to wish my brother, Steven and his wife, Kim a HAPPY 2 YEAR ANNIVERSARY!!! You two are so adorable together and we love you both very much.

Perfect Weekend from the Perfect Surprise

As I have previously posted, I was quite surprised to have my brother and sister-in-law here this past weekend. I think it may have just been one of my favorite Easters ever! The weather was beautiful and it was really nice to have so much help. However, I believe Elyse had the most fun, she loves spending time with her Uncle Steven and Aunt Kim. We spent everyday doing something new. On Friday we all went to the Como Zoo (free zoo here in St. Paul), Saturday, we went shopping at a great outdoor mall and Sunday, we celebrated Easter together. We got all dressed up, went to church and then because Kim never has, we had her and Steven go on an Easter egg hunt and then we all dyed eggs. Finishing the night with a beautiful and enjoyable walk as well as the Klauser favorite, ice cream cake :)

I just want to thank Steven and Kim again for taking time off to come see us. We loved having you and look forward to seeing you again REAL soon!!! Love you lots!

Below are just a few pictures from the weekend. Just like Thanksgiving, Nate, my mom and Kim left me with over 500 pictures I had to choose from, wow!

Happy Easter

We just wanted to wish you all a Happy Easter. May it be full of joy, love and laughter. May you also take a moment and reflect the true meaning behind Easter. We are so thankful for our Lord in Savior, Jesus Christ who died for our sins and rose again so we could be free. We love you all and again, Happy Easter.

Perfect Surprise!

Nate, my brother, Steven and sister-in-law, Kim gave me the perfect surprise yesterday. They planned it around Christmas to come up here to celebrate Easter. They arrived yesterday and will leave Monday. I cried when I saw them because I was so overjoyed. They surprised my mom too which was fun. However the best part is, I get four days with five people I love so much! YEAH!!! More pictures to come!

7 Months Old

Happy 7 Month Birthday to Our Beautiful Baby Girl!
Elyse turns 7 months today and I am so excited to see what this month will entail. The reason is because 6 months had so many new things! She began eating food, scooting, got babysat all day and night by Grams, attended her first wedding, got stuck in her first blizzard and starting saying "Ma-ma" (we have tried to get it on camera, we will continue to work on it). Overall, 6 months was very fun for Nate and I. However, I believe we will enjoy 7 months just as much.

Wonderful Saturday, HORRIBLE Sunday!

Wonderful Saturday: spent the morning enjoying sometime with our amazing friends and hosts, Brandon and Kelly Fischer. Then Elyse and I got to join Kelly to visit our friends Mark, Mandy and their son, Callen. Lastly and the best part of Saturday was attending Nate and Jess Eagles' wedding. It was beautiful, Jess looked beautiful plus it was awesome to see old friends!!!! I felt like we knew more people that attended their wedding than their parents may have. Elyse also went and did great; but who wouldn't when you constantly got so much attention? Overall, Saturday was wonderful, so wonderful I even forgot to take 1 picture...sorry

HORRIBLE Sunday: rumor had it there was going to be a blizzard in IA. So we woke up, got dressed right away and headed home at 9:00. We knew we only had to make it about 50 miles and would be fine. The snow was coming down pretty fast, plus the wind was getting more strong. Got pass Story City and realized it was getting thicker and we should turn around and stay in Ames another night. So we were going to take the next exit...133. We saw the sign, got closer and then right on Interstate 35, no movement! We sat for about 1 hour. We only needed to go 50 feet. Finally we moved those 50 feet to the exit. Proceeded on the ramp, but in previous 1 hour, the snow feel like crazy and we got stuck! Now we were on the ramp stuck, yet the cars in front of us were still stuck on 35 anyways. This is the part where my amazing husband told me it was going to be fine. We had God on our side, plenty of extra clothes, water, food and gas. Therefore, we sat!!! It was now about 11:30 and the fun began. A snowplow was coming down our ramp, yeah he was going to rescue us, so we thought! However, as he tries to get past us he got stuck! That's right, a snow plow is now stuck. He tells us he has to call another snow plow to get him out and us. So we sit some more. By this time, both Nate and I have to pee!!! So what's our solution, use Nate's coffee cup. That's right, even I peed in a cup, desperate times call for desperate measures. Elyse however is loving it, she got to eat and play in the car. Finally it's 12:30 and the second snow plow comes. He quickly does get us out and tells us to drive to KC/Subway rest stop off the exit and stay for at least 1 hour. As we drove away we saw the cars on 35 still stuck! Therefore we safely arrive to Subway and it's packed. People are telling their stories and finding ways to try to make it home. After two hours at Subway, we heard a county highway was open and we could get to 35 from it. We proceed and made it. Once we hit 35 about 20 minutes north of where we were, we were fine. In fact, once we crossed the border, it was 48 degrees and sunny. I felt like we left Iowa in January to fast forward to Minnesota in April, it was such a weird feeling. Overall, very happy to be home and very thankful for an amazing leader of a husband and a prayer answering God!!!

Go Get It

For the past week Elyse has wanted to do nothing but move on her own; well Tuesday night she did it! The funny thing is her duck was her motivation. It's been hard to catch her on camera because she would rather stare at it instead of move. Luckily, I was able to get her going after the duck this afternoon. We are so proud of her and know she will be moving all over the place now!
Side note...don't you just love the UGLY flower carpet, it's kind of our crappy room, a great place for Elyse to play.
I also apologize that it's two videos, the file was too big to post as one.