Growing up

We spent some time up at the ranch this weekend with Grandma and Grandpa Roitz. Eliza loves it there because there are so many things to do. Lots of grass and dirt, dogs, cats, cows, and cousins.








Everytime the camera comes out these days it is all cheese. She squints her eyes and opens her mouth. Crazy girl.



Oh yeah, she is walking around now. She still mostly crawls but is walking more and more. She is getting so big!


Eliza's hair has gotten a bit long on top as you can see in the next couple of pictures. I just can't bring myself to cut it though...





I love my little big blue eyes!

Stubborn

Eliza did not want to take a nap the other day. I would lay her down and she would stand right back up. I knew she was tired so I left her in there for a couple minutes. I went back in to see if she had fallen asleep, and sure enough she was! Just not in the traditional position.




Yes she is sucking her thumb:0 I don't know what to do about that.







We also had some killer dessert that night. I recreated Macaroni Grill's dessert ravioli. Deep fried snickers. Wrapped in pastry goodness. With ice cream. With little caramel chocolate things. With love.

Easter in Texas

Well we made it back from Texas and we had a wonderful time. The drive wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it was going to be and Eliza did really well. We got to spend time with Josh's sister and her kids who we don't get to see that often. Josh's brother and his family went as well and Eliza just loves all of her cousins.

I have a lot of pictures.

We dyed some Easter eggs and Eliza just wanted to eat it.

MMmmm

Then she decided to chuck the egg. Hot pics of me I know.

Eliza LOVED to be around all of her cousins. She doesn't know what to do now that we are home.
At a museum in Pampa Texas.

What a cute babe!

Trying to steal Kolby's shoe

On the tramp. Josh couldn't find her jacket so he made one out of her pj's.

Kolten and Eliza

Kaylee and Baileigh

We went to Amarillo for the day and went to the American Quarter Horse Museam

All the cousins. This is the only picture I have of the baby Madelyn:( She is super cute though!

Woohoo Tucker. He is a real cowboy.

Eliza's first ride on the horse. We got to the museum and the guy asked if Eliza would want a token to ride the horse. I was like, "ya, what kind of horse is it?" I though being in a horse museum they would have an actual horse. The guy was like, "Oh its just a little horse." Me not getting it yet was like, "oh like a little shetland pony?" NO it was a wal-mart horse! I was slightly dissapointed. We are in Texas at a horse museum with no real horses, come on!

Horse kisses.

When we got home we needed some bigger pajamas because Eliza had a growth spurt on our trip. These are her new bigger ones and I guess her arms are a little short!




Hope everyone had a great Easter!

Texas here we come

We are embarking on a grand adventure. Josh's sister lives in Texas and we are going to see her for Easter. We leave on Thursday and are breaking the trip into two days. The first day will only be like 4 hours. The second day will be 7! Yikes.
I am super excited to go on a mini vacation and see Josh's sister and all her cute kids. We are staying in Texas about 3-4 days.
My main objective for blogging about this is because I am really not looking forward to the drive especially the second day. Eliza has usually been good in the car, but it seems the older she get, the more impatient she becomes. We went to Utah last weekend and she wasn't having it. She has also turned into a very high pitched screamer. Its very soothing.
So I need all of you bloggers advice on driving with a babe please. What has worked for you?

One tough cookie

This post is dedicated to my Grandma Stringer. For those of you who have ever had the pleasure of meeting her, I doubt you would soon forget the encounter. She can make you laugh and she can make you cry. She is one of the hardest workers I have ever known. I guess you would have to be when you grew up on a ranch in the middle of wyoming taking care of your whole family because your mother had passed away and your father was away half of the year in california shearing sheep to earn some money.

She is 91 and healthy, physically, as a horse. She has been in an assisted living home in evanston for a couple of years. She is an onery old cuss and for the first little while she wasn't too happy to be there. This last week she has been in the hospital with pnuenomia. They didn't know what type she had and both of her lungs were full of liquid. They didn't know if she would make it through the first night, but we had a suspicion that if she really didn't want to go yet, she wouldn't and she didn't. She is getting better everyday and is a hoot to be around. She is going to relocate to Logan to have some better care. I will miss not getting to see her as much and it makes me sad she won't ever really know my baby like she knows me.

I am going to miss you Grandma when you go to Logan and when you go to your Heavenly Father. You have made my life more memorable and provided me with some awesome times. You made the best homemade chicken and noodles and creamed peas and potatoes. You raised a great mom for me and had a hand in shaping me into who I am today. I love you!



This last weekend we had Eliza's pictures taken and here are some of those and also some random pitures of her.










I love my big baby blues




Best Friends

Heart anyone?

I am sure you have heard of a broken heart, maybe an aching heart or a full heart? Well, how about a roasted heart? Yes, my friends that was what was on the Roitz family dinner menu last night. Roast beef heart.

For any of you who know Josh, you know he and his family have a cow ranch. When they butcher cows, they save everything. Heart, kidney, liver, stomach etc... Josh made some kidney for our friends the other night, and they are not too bad. Josh was always talking about how his grandma used to make stuffed roast heart, so I decided to give it a try. I tried to look online for some recipes and pointers, but suprisingly there weren't too many to find.

We had the heart in our freezer for a couple of weeks and I finally willed myself to take on the tast.

Before we begin, I want you to know that the cows on the Roitz ranch must be kind of lazy. They evidently don't like to walk very far or long because this cow had some serious fat buildup on his heart. That was by far the most time consuming part was cutting off all of the fat.

Observe





So after the fat is all trimmed off you have to cut it open and remove all the little arteries and membranes. It brought back flashes of A&P from college.



The next step is to prepare a stuffing, stuff the heart and roll it back up and secure. I then seared it in a pan. I do have to say it looked like a pretty piece of meat then.



Then you throw it in the crocker for the rest of the afternoon with some veggies and onion soup mix. And you come out with a little roast of heart. Sorry to dissapoint, but everyone (Josh and his dad) were soo excited to eat it I forgot to take a picture of the finished product. It really just looked like a little beef roast.

I made some mashed potatoes and gravy and we had some corn and peas. It was a nice country dinner.

*Okay, I had some of the heart, and it was good... It tasted like a roast beef, but the texture was a little denser and chewier(sp). I personally would rather just have a regular old roast, but it was a lot better than I expected. I will be making it again, because Josh loves it.*

Maybe some day ya'll could give it a try!