Toddlers Climb EVERYTHING!!

Here is proof that Eliza is officially a toddler.

I was reorganizing some boxes of baby clothes and school stuff when Eliza discovered, to her immense enjoyment, that she could crawl up on the boxes and they became perfect seats. I decided to be a nice mom and build her some stairs that were safe to climb up. She LOVED it! When I finally put all the boxes away, she started crying. Poor girl. I'm sure she'll find something new to crawl onto tomorrow.

Our Growing Girls!!!

That's right...girls! It looks like Eliza will be a big sister to a little sister! We are very excited for this precious new princess to join our family. Everything looks great in the ultrasound and the doctor says our girl is growing and developing really well.

On another note, Eliza is learning new things to do and new words to say everyday. It is really fun how interactive she has become. Here is her latest and greatest.




She learned this just by me singing the song a couple of times. I am always impressed by how fast she catches on to new things.

San Diego Zoo

A few weekends ago we planned a trip to the San Diego Zoo with some friends from BYU/fellow coworkers at John Deere. They live and work in San Diego so we are quite close. It was a great time to be with them. I think Jessica and I enjoyed talking to each other more than we did seeing the different animals while John, Ryan and Eliza were more fascinated with the animals than with talking. It was perfect for everyone.

Pointing to the Elephants

Pointing to the monkeys.

Playing on some stairs.

Our family

Eliza was fascinated with the Koalas. We spent a good half an hour watching them.

It was a long day, but a lot of fun! Thanks Johansens for letting us come visit!

Yummy Food

I have a dear friend who is a fantastic cook. I wish I could venture out with different foods like her and still have it taste excellent. Anyway, she frequently blogs about the yummy, yummy food she makes. It reminds me of the days when I too was newlywed and made a meal for Ryan every night for the first three months. Sometimes I wish I still did that, but alas, life if different.

I do cook, however infrequently it might be. I also, however, rarely take pictures like my friend and my older sister. As I was going through pictures from the last few months I found some of food that I did make. Ta-da. Proof.

These burgers turned out to be incredibly huge but Oh!, so delicious. Homemade burgers are always much better than those from a burger joint. Our trick, grilled onions as well as chili powder on top of the burger as it cooks. It add just the right about of flavor.

I have another dear friend from South Korea, and before I moved to California, she taught me how to make Chapchae. It turned out amazing. Eliza even couldn't get enough of it. My friend would be so proud of me, I ate my entire meal with chop sticks. That's right, no fork or western utensil. It was hard and took a long time, but that meant more time to enjoy.

While living in LA, Ryan and I have decided to try to eat lots of ethnic foods that we would not have the chance to eat elsewhere. We rarely go out to eat, but on the special occasion that we do, we try new foods. One such place was Veronica's Kitchen, a Nigerian place.

This was so much fun to go to. We were the only white people in the entire restaurant. It was awesome. Ryan ordered us some fu-fu (foo-foo) with some chicken soup. Fu-fu is a mass of what looks like and has the consistency of play dough. It is made from crushed melon seeds. You break off of piece of the ball and form it into a spoon. You then dish up some soup with it and eat the whole thing. It sounds weird, but is really quite good. Beware, it is very spicy and not for weak tongues. We even got mild and it was almost too much for me.

Me demonstrating how to eat fu-fu.

I can fix it, you can help.

Eliza's must have loved that saying from our recent "Cousin Camp" excursion with the Smith family. She put it into practice when our dishwasher went on the fritz.



It was a simple fix, but Eliza wanted to be involved the entire time :)

Birthday Girl!!

Eliza's ONE!!!! Here it is a month after she turns one and I finally decide to write a few words about my sweet, sweet girl.

First I have to say one fun fact about Eliza's short life so far. In the twelve months she has been alive she has been in twelve different States. How many people can say that. Here they are in case you want to know. Iowa, Illinois, Missouri, Nebraska, Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, Idaho, Arizona, Nevada, California, and Texas. Kind of fun.

To let you know how life has been since Eliza turned one, I figured I might as well document the cake smash for everyone's pleasure.

This is Eliza's cake of butterflies.

First taste of her cake.

When she was all done with her cake she promptly pushed it away.

Opening her presents.
I love her face as she peers in the bag.

Here are a few things Eliza loves.

water, bananas, oranges, grapes, dirt, dirt, and more DIRT, playing "horsie" on her parents' knees, tissues, friends, cousins, Grandma, music, dancing, playing peek-a-boo, bath time, the beach, running/walking everywhere, macaroni, drinking water, marshmallows, blowing kisses, "kissing" cheeks (she thinks that pointing is kissing), balls, flowers, her blankie, and reading books.

We sure love you big girl!!

Eliza's New Trick

While visiting my adopted parents, who happen to be Jessie's biological parents, we were downstairs while Eliza was playing with her grandma. As we came up, what should appear, but Eliza helping her Grandma do the dishes.


You know us Klemetson's, always service with a smile :)