Trying to Keep Up

It has been a crazy last couple of weeks and I realized that we have not put a post up in those last couple of weeks, so here are some highlights.

Eliza helped in the garden one of the Saturdays

Her second picnic brought some yawns but it was still fun.

Eliza went fishing,

and gave Dad some pretty good looks,

and she had had plenty of visits from friends.

We look forward to seeing some of you this coming weekend when she will be blessed, travel safe and we will see you soon.

First Picnic

It is time. Today is Eliza's 3 week birthday, so before that happened we had to get her out on a hike and see what she thought. I have been wanting to try out cottonwood wash and just had not done it yet, so Friday night Angela suggested a picnic and off we went. It was a little hot to start out but once we dropped into the canyon we found a nice rock and had a picnic. Eliza was so good, I think she likes the outdoors. After the picnic we hiked a little further, took some pictures and then came home. This is the first of many outdoor adventures for Eliza.

Thank Heavens for Family!

This is a big THANK YOU to all our family for all the help and love and gifts and everything else they've done for us in the past couple of weeks. We feel pretty blessed to have you all. Even Grandma and Grandpa Merkley check up on Eliza through the chats. Boy, do we keep the Google lines busy!

Eliza has had quite the first couple of weeks. Thanks to her parents who do nothing better than procrastinate...well, lets be kind - it's only 10% procrastination and 90% difficulty making decisions...Eliza's first few weeks were not uneventful and nothing but rest and relaxation.
She got carpet and baseboards (thanks Grandpa!) in her room before she was 2 weeks old. This meant we were all sorts of displaced by random furniture placement in the house for two days. She also loves to go for walks with her dad, and she loves the sound of the birds.



Eliza also got to meet one of her cousins! My sister, Amy, came and stayed for a week after Grandma Averett left. (Thanks to both of you. I've missed you even more now that I've had a week on my own.) Amy brought Lance, and he wasn't quite sure what to think of someone smaller than himself. My favorite part was when he first saw Eliza, she had her binky in. Lance has one just like it and he thought she had his. We had to go find it so he had one too. Then he felt better about her. He sure liked to crawl up to her and try to give her loves. He also thought Uncle Aaron was a great pal! Such a cute kid! He was lots of help when the carpet came, although he was a little disappointed to lose his "echo room." He would crawl into or past Eliza's room while it was still concrete floor and make all kinds of noise just to hear the echo it made.

Isn't family great!

Check out the Poll

We pulled out the baby books, and the vote is out. Who does Eliza take after? Mom or Dad? Check out the pictures and tell us what you think in the poll at the right.

What can we say, we like her...a lot!

Yes, we are proud parents. Aaron comes home from work and thinks she smiles just for him. I feel like all her pictures are of her sleeping, but let's face it. That's what she does these days. And she's good at it!


His new favorite friend.


Coming home. Can you tell we had a fun trying to learn the art of the
car seat?


Eliza's favorite position and pastime.


See, I told you it was her favorite.

The Moment We've All Been Waiting For...

...has arrived!



Eliza Averett was born at 9:15 a.m. on May 25th.
She weighed 9 lbs. 13 oz. and is 21.5 in. long.
And she's beautiful. We think you'll agree.

Updates

It kind of feels like life is full of updates lately. It also feels like I'm a slacker at providing them. We look for updates every morning on what's happening half way around the world, and I realized today that I should say something about it on here for those who are wondering.

Thanks for those of you who emailed your concern for my parents. They are safe, and thankfully, we are able to get emails from them again. Power was restored to the hotel where they live. Whether it was restored to the whole city or not, I'm unsure. They are a little frustrated about the situation and feeling a little helpless, but that is understandable. Mom has learned a valuable lesson from all this - we have been able to chat back and forth through gmail several times and she learned how to make a smiley face out of a colon and a parenthesis :) A skill no one should be without.

My brother has been much better about blogging the happenings, so for further info I invite you to check out his blog. Just click on the Colorado Merkleys site on the side. (Hope you like the extra traffic, Josh :)