Birth- 3 years: Two words for you... teen mom. I was three weeks away from being 20 when held this angle in my arms for the first time. I wouldn't go back and change anything mostly because it's fun to see the look people get when I tell them I was a teen mom. :-)
Elise was born a week early on a night with an full lunar eclipse taking place. I remember thinking how perfect she was and I couldn't stop looking at her. Then the hospital staff took her away and didn't return for 3 hours and didn't tell me what was going on and my legs were immobile so... all I could do was wait and worry. Turns out that everything was just fine. Jaime was with her the whole time and was able to bathe her and hold her and love her but my babies after her pretty much never left my sight.
The two physical features I remember most about her at birth are her perfect lips and her dark brown hair- hair that quickly lighten...
and unfortunately by 1 month had fallen out- male pattern baldness style. I would soon learn that all my children will be cursed with this hair style for the first months of their life.
Elise, the oldest daughter of the youngest daughter of the youngest daughter of Gladys Cragun. Grandma passed away shortly after holding my baby girl.
Her hair grew back in relatively quickly and Elise was able to move on to a new phase:
Crawling around with toys in her mouth. Hehe!
Then we found out that Elise wasn't going to be an only child for long!
Along came her brother and soon to be best friend Cameron a few months after Elise's first birthday.
I have the cutest hard copy picture of them hiding under Kaitlin's crib eating cookies that they had snitched from the kitchen.
Elise from the beginning was, and is, a wonderful big sister. She was always helping me take care of Cameron and loved helping me around the house. I even made her an little apron that matched mine so we could be twinners.
By two Elise had begun to develop interests in princesses and ponies. I heard her at the kitchen table one day playing with her My Little Ponies and singing "One pony bromping. Bromp-bromp. Two ponies bromping. Bromp-bromp." :-)
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At three Elise would gain another sibling and a sister- Kaitlin. She would also gain the love of her life... we took a little adventure up to the Thanksgiving Point Farm and there Elise met a miniature pony named Opie. I'm pretty sure this is the moment that set her love of horses in stone.
4-8 Years: A little before her 4th birthday I was in Walmart and saw they had a miniature robotic horse... perfect! What better gift could you give a little girl with a deep love of horses!
Meet Opie! The robotic Fur Real Friends horse.
At five years old Elise began to exhibit signs of being a drama queen. This was the age of the first "I hat my parrnts!" note and also when she ran off crying "you're ruining my life!" She also told me her plans for her 17th birthday (not joking here)- what boys were going to be there, what the decorations were going to be like, what they would talk about, and who she would kiss.
Isn't she so sweet! But she's also a booger brat.
At 6 Elise was still loving school and still figuring who she was, she dyed her hair red and gained another sister, Nora. My family would often look at her and say how much she looked like me:
I think these next photos, taken by my very dear friend Valerie, capture Elise to the fullest: her silliness, her attitude, and her sweetness.
8 years old: energetic and sassy.
Elise and Adele
Elise and her favorite person in the world, Dad.
9 Years: She placed in the science fair, she learned to roller blade, we acquired chickens, she took up Karate- where she would advance to the rank of Blue-Green belt, and we tragically lost our beloved pet robot Opie.
Elise and Ellie and Elise and Jenny
9 was an up and down year for Elise and her best friend Adele. I think she was going through a figure-myself-out stage. I am very grateful to Adele's mom, Sara, for how maturely she handled my daughter and her less than ideal behavior. Sara loved and forgave Elise through it all and she taught Adele to do the same. It took love, forgiveness, gentleness, kindness, patience and guidance but eventually it all worked out and they are still best friends. One incident in particular stands out to me and I have to share it:
I had received a call from Sara (something I had asked her to do whenever an issue came up) and was told about an incident at lunch recess. Sara didn't have all the details so I wrote to the 4th grade teachers and asked if they would fill me in (so that I could speak with Elise about it and help her right a wrong). In addition to receiving the details I was told Elise's explanation of her behavior, and I quote: "Oh, I don't know what got in my head. I only had a glass of water last night so I must be dehydrated." Bahahahaha! Every now and then this phrase pops into my head and I still chuckle over it.
10 Years: She's actually 9 in these next two pictures, taken by my friend Rachelle, but we'll roll with it. 10 was a fun year. Disneyland, another sister-Lily, braces, placing in the science fair again and having the opportunity to advance up to the BYU STEM Fair level, and breaking Nora's foot.
11 Years: Humoring her mother by modeling a candy lei necklace, a trip to Las Vegas and Colorado Springs, an Air National Guard christmas party featuring creepy balloon tying clowns and her weird brother, a baby sister who loves her so much she has to climb all over her all the time, discovering the joys of having a best friend cousin/pen pal- it was at the Phair family reunion that she discovered "how cool" her cousin Megan is, and breaking Lily's foot- yep that's two out of three sisters. Watch out Kaitlin!
It was during the trip to Las Vegas that Elise put a diaper on Lily's head and called her Queen Diaper Head that I was inspired to write a new story about Nora with cameo's by Elise, of course, and Her Royal Highness Duchess Diaper Head- author of the Huggie Times #1 Best Seller "Baby Etiquette"
You can't see it but her mouth has the word 'food' written in it. This picture pretty much sums up Elise over the summer. I had to kick her out of the house several times a day.
Don't mind the fact that Duchess Diaper Head has a very long neck; I am the first to admit that I am anything but an artist-there is a major disconnect between my brain and my drawing skills.
This was also the year that Elise earned some money from babysitting. Not only was she thrilled to be asked to babysit for a couple of our neighbors but she was ecstatic to have her own money. It was a very proud mommy moment when a few weeks before Christmas Elise asked me if I would take her to the store. She had saved up almost all of her earnings and wanted to spend the money on her friends and family. She had written up a very thoughtful list of each person she wanted to give a gift to and what that gift would be. These weren't random items, she took the time to think about the likes of each person and chose an item based on their likes. She spent 90% of her money on everyone but herself and my heart swelled with joy at her kindness and thoughtfulness.
12 Years: Elise is highly intelligent, funny, friendly, loving, sassy, snobby, and bratty but I wouldn't exchange her or change her for anything. She has a heart of gold and I know that heart will eventually completely win over and she will grow into an adult who spends her life spreading goodness and love. Happy Birthday E!
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