What Happened!?!

Today I took out the insert in Ellie's car seat. This was a big step for me:) The last few weeks when I put her in she just seemed squished, but I couldn't imagine she was big enough to not have the infant insert in the seat. Well....today it came out. She is growing so fast and I can't believe that my tiny baby is now 4 and a half months old. Wow! What happened!?!

Old Spice Spoof...#2

I don't know...I just think the Old Spice Spoofs are funny :)

Annual Dinner in a Pumpkin and Caramel Apples!

A few years ago we started a tradition on doing dinner in a pumpkin and making caramel apples. We love it! Here are some pictures for this year.

Dinner in a pumpkin....it really is good:)

Breadstick Bones

Limeade Hands

Delicious Dessert

Yummy Caramel Apples

We had to make a couple extra...in honor of the Hughes! Wish you were here:)

The Whitmer's were able to come up with their cute Lydia. So good to see you guys. We didn't get a picture of the Staley's, but its always fun to have them here too.

I love Halloween so much! I have always liked it, and Patrick LOVES it, so it's even better. I really like all the fun treats that we make/get from others. I am going to try some cookie spiders next. I will post those soon...if they work out:) Happy Halloween.

4 Month Check Up

We had Ellie's 4 month check-up yesterday. She is once again doing great. She is growing and is healthy. She now weighs 14lb 6.8oz and is 24 inches long. She is average across the board for percentile. She had more immunizations and did great. She screamed a little harder right when they were giving them, but then calmed right down and was her happy self. I hope this continues to be this way and she gets older...we can only hope:) She is such a cute little girl and we love having her in our family so very much! Here are some thing she is doing right now.

*Rolling to one side-she doesn't do this often, but every now and then.

*Laughing, giggling, talking...all the time. I love all of her noises. She especially loves it when Patrick flubbers her neck. She is starting to make new noises too each day. She is going to be a talker.

*When I sing to her, she will sing back. It is seriously so dang cute!

*Grabs onto everything and anything you giver her. Then it of course goes straight to her mouth. She will grab and pull on her play mat...thingy...to make the music go. I don't know that she really knows that if she pulls it, it will make music, but she pulls it anyways. She loves toys, especially these rings that Patrick got her. I also made her a tabby blanket that she loves. She will poke her fingers through the tabs and put them straight in her mouth:)

*Holds onto her feet when she has jammies on.

*Plays with her ears.

*Wiggles all the time.

*Hold her head up all the time. We just got her a bumbo and it is her new favorite thing.

*You can pull her into sitting and then she always wants to keep going till she's standing. She is really strong and seems so proud of herself when she does this

*Follows objects all over the room. The other day I put her in front of the mirror, because she just loves seeing a baby in the mirror and as I would turn, she would turn her head all over to make sure she was still looking in the mirror

*Pushes her self up on her tummy. She holds her head up really great doing this and gets her chest off the ground for a while.

*Is notorious for smiling so huge, but as soon as the camera comes out, she just glares at it:) Its awesome when we get a good smiling picture:)

I can't think of anything else right now, but overall she is just so happy all the time. I love being able to stay home with her and watch her grow and explore all the new things that life has to bring. She is an amazing little girl and we love her so much!

PS I asked the Dr about her crying so much when she goes to bed and he said that it is very normal and happens at this age to a lot of kids. They have developed a little more and just want to take in everything and not sleep. He said that we just need to keep trying and maybe put her to bed a little earlier, before she is too tired to sleep. Try to be really boring before bed, so she doesn't want to stay up:) We can try letting her cry it out-I hate this, but we do try and she just cries and cries(he said if she still does this at 6 months then we should try letting her cry longer till she falls asleep) He did say that it usually only lasts a couple of weeks and she will probably get used to everything and start a more normal routine with naps etc..

This is from this morning. I just think she is so cute! I love these jammies and Grandma found this little witch hat. Here she is lovin the Bumbo.

How Cool is This?

This was a total accident. I think it's pretty amazing!

Okay, I will post more than this....even though that is pretty dang cool! We haven't been up to a whole lot lately. Just everyday stuff. Patrick is working and going to school and doing great at both. He amazes me everyday. He is such a great daddy and I'm so glad to have him as a husband. Ellie is growing fast as ever. I went and visited a friend the other day with a new baby and I couldn't believe how much bigger she was compared to him. I guess I just don't notice it as much because I see her everyday.

The last few days have been a little rough. For some reason she has decided that sleep is just not an option for her. I'm not sure if there is just so much other fun stuff to do or what, but it is getting pretty old:) She gets so tired and then just screams....tonight for instance she just fell asleep after an hour and a half of crying. It is just so not like her. I give props to all you out there who have a colicky baby. You're amazing!

Okay, so of course....here a few pictures. We have a video camera full of video's that I will post sometime, but for now I don't want to try to figure that out..... Ellie is 18 weeks old. We have her 4 month check-up tomorrow to see how everything is going. Maybe they can shed some light on all the crying, or at least give some advice. She seems to be so healthy and a happy little girl. She is so much fun to have around and we just love her so much. Here is her 18 week picture...all decked out for Halloween...and the shirt is very TRUE!

October 1

I laid Ellie down for a bit while I did a couple of things and when I came back here is the look I got. I LOVE it! She just makes my heart melt. She also does this look at 4am....which makes it extremely hard to be unhappy that I'm awake at such an hour. Hopefully that won't last long. I read somewhere that after kids have been sleeping through the night they sometimes go in spurts and will wake up a lot at night. I am hoping that spurt is almost over....at least for this time.

October 2

She found her toes. Most of Ellie's jammies have something on the feet. She loves to look at whatever that something might be and grab at it. She doesn't do it as much with her feet, just the jammies. Ellie did so great during conference. I was a little worried we wouldn't get anything out of it this year, until after re-reading all the talks, but she was so good and just played quietly and slept a lot. Here she is with daddy.

October 4

She has also found her ears. Some people say to watch for ear infections, but she isn't ever grabbing at them or crying over them. She seems to love to just hold onto them. She loves to hold onto anything and everything, especially faces. They must just be interesting. She fell asleep like this the other day. Holding an ear in each hand.

October 5

I just thought this was funny. We have some polka dot socks....this is what her feet looked like after they came off. I guess they might just be a little small now:) I love cute little feet! We tried out a Johnny Jump Up at a friends house and Ellie loved it. She was so excited to be able to move around freely. She is still a little small for it...as you can tell by her arms going pretty close to straight up....but she enjoyed herself for a few minutes We are going to have to get one now.

October 10

My parents stopped by on there way back from Oregon and hung out. Here are the boys....while my mom and I made yummy pumpkin cupcakes. They were so good. I will post the recipe at the bottom in case anyone would like it. These don't have the frosting on them, but it was really good too. I love having family visit. Hopefully one day we will live closer to both our parents.

October 13

We made our annual trip to the Paradise Pumpkin Patch. Doesn't Ellie just look like she's chillin'? A few years ago I found this patch and we have loved going out there every year since. We go to Paradise Farms because they have a nice, cheap pumpkin patch, yummy apples and apple cider. It is an awesome tradition and I would recommend it to everyone. We waited a little too long this year and there wasn't a huge selection, but we still had fun. Luckily there is a patch across the street that I think the youth puts on. The pumpkins are a little more, but we founds some great ones. We did however decide that it would be a wonderful idea to lock BOTH sets of keys in the car....with everything inside...all of Ellie's stuff, wallet, etc. So, we walked back to Paradise Farms and they were kind enough to let us borrow a phone book and their home phone(we had no cell phone service) to call Beazer Lock and Key. I have to say that Beazer was really great. They took about 30 minutes to get there and even though it cost us $40, they were very efficient and quick. They even let me know that if I bring in my receipt, they will make an extra copy of our key for us. How cool is that! It was about 6:30pm and getting a little cold, so we had to improvise a little.Well, that's it for now. We are loving life and being parents and all that fun stuff. So excited for this time of year with all of the fun holidays coming up.

Pumpkin Cream Cupcakes

1 pkg Spice Cake Mix

1 pkg (3.4 oz) Jell-O Vanilla Flavor Pudding

1 Cup canned pumpkin

1 pkg cream cheese, softened

1/4 Cup sugar

1 egg

Heat oven to 350F. Prepare cake batter as directed on package. Add dry pudding mix and pumpkin; mix well. Spoon into paper-lined muffin cups.(It says 24, but the first batch sort of overflowed...I would make a few more and not fill the pans too full) Beat cream cheese with mixer until creamy. Blend in sugar and egg; spoon over batter. Swirl gently with a small spoon.(Not sure what they really mean, but there picture just had white in the middle. Mine ended up all over the top, but they still tasted yummy, so no big deal.) Bake 18-21 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool 5 min in pan and then remove to a wire rack and cool completely.

Stir 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg into 1 and 1/2 cups thawed Cool Whip; spread over cooled cupcakes. Keep refrigerated.

Love It!

Finally!

Our little mouse "friend" took his last breath in the night. Hallelujah! Hopefully he didn't bring any little rodent friends with him...but...just in case we are leaving the traps set for a while. I'm so glad Ellie isn't crawling yet.

Yuck!

A mouse just ran across my floor:(

I love being a mom!

My visiting teachers came over yesterday. I am so grateful to have visiting teachers. I love to hear the messages they share each month. One of them shared a story she had read recently and I had to look it up and read it through again. I love stories like this. They really make me feel like I need to make sure that I am doing everything I can to make sure that I teach my children and am in tune with the Spirit. Heavenly Father is trusting me to help them back to him and I am going to do my best!

A newborns conversation with God: A baby asked God, "They tell me you are sending me to earth tomorrow, but how am I going to live there being so small and helpless?" God said, "Your angel will be waiting for you and will take care of you." The child further inquired, "But tell me, here in heaven I don't have to do anything but sing and smile to be happy." God said, "Your angel will sing for you and will also smile for you. And you will feel your angel's love and be very happy." Again the child asked, "And how am I going to be able to understand when people talk to me if I don't know the language?" God said, "Your angel will tell you the most beautiful and sweet words you will ever hear, and with much patience and care, your angel will teach you how to speak." And what am I going to do when I want to talk to you?" God said, "Your angel will place your hands together and will teach you how to pray." Who will protect me?" God said, "Your angel will defend you even if it means risking its life." But I will always be sad because I will not see you anymore." God said, "Your angel will always talk to you about Me and will teach you the way to come back to Me, even though I will always be next to you." At that moment there was much peace in Heaven, but voices from Earth could be heard and the child hurriedly asked, "God, if I am to leave now, please tell me my angel's name." God said, "You will simply call her, "Mom."

There is another story about Mothers that I love that was shared in Relief Society that I will look for to post later.

On a different note. I love waking up to this little girl. She is really finding her voice so much lately and loves using it:) Last week she decided it would be best to use it at 4 in the morning:) Good thing she is so cute and smiley otherwise I might have been annoyed. Here is what I woke up to this morning.

She always looks right at you and smiles huge when I come to get her in the mornings. It melts my heart!

Ellie is learning so much. Everyday she seems to be stronger and doing knew things. She drools constantly and loves to put anything and everything in her mouth....especially her hands. The last couple of days she really like burp clothes.

She has started laughing more and more. One of her favorite things is when Patrick flubbers her neck. She just giggles and giggles. I will try to get a video soon to post on here.

Her hair is getting so much longer. It has at least doubled in length...and....her hair on the left side is finally starting to come in. Hopefully she won't be bald for much longer on that side.

Ellie weighs about 14lbs right now. We go in for her 4 month check up on Oct 14. It will be interesting to see how much she has grown, especially in length.

We had family pictures taken Saturday. Here are a couple of pictures. Jenny Skeen took the pictures and did a great job. Check out her blog at Jen Skeen Photography. I will post more when we get them back.

Cat Spider

Yesterday I was leaving to go somewhere and as I walked out my door, I saw this... I hate spiders....This was is just gross looking. We have had so many spiders this year and Patrick just sprayed our whole apartment to make sure they would be nowhere here:) We have been getting huge....I mean really ...black spiders. This one just creeped me out. All I could say was PATRICK!!!!! Please kill that spider....SOOOON! Of course he did, but then later that night decided to look it up and see if he could figure out what kind it was. It is called a cat spider, or cat faced spider. Who knew? I guess it is harmless to humans, and he felt sort of bad for squishing it. I on the other hand don't want to wake up with that thing by me....so I'm glad it's gone. Now I've got to stop thinking I feel it on me....Yuck!

P90X

So....lately....probably the last 3 years....Patrick and I have been feeling like we need to get into better shape. Just be healthier. We don't have any motivation for it though. I have never been a big fan of running and don't have very good endurance. We just feel lethargic all the time. Lately when we have been trying to be active, we are so exhausted in a short time. I decided that it is time that I try to get in better shape...NOW. It is always easier to do this with someone else to help motivate you, so Patrick is also joining me. A long while ago, Patrick got P90X. I don't know much about it, but know that it is a 90 day program to help get your body back on track??? The guy on the video:) is very encouraging and tells you over and over to make sure to go at your own pace. This is very important to listen to, because when Patrick tried it before, after the second day, he got out of bed and crumpled to the floor in pain:) We just started Monday, and I am already feeling it. I just know that it is a workout video, so I can do it at home and not have to worry about finding someone to watch Ellie or go when Patrick is home. I thought if I blogged about it, maybe I will have a little more motivation to not quit....since others now know of my goal:) Wish us luck!

Thumb Sucker!

It's late and I need to be sleeping, but I just had to post one cute picture. The last few days Ellie has decided to suck her thumb ALOT. She has always liked to suck on her hands and lately has been doing that more...and anything else she can get a hold of(stuffed bunny, toys, my arm, hand and face:) Well, now she is getting really good and finding her thumb. We try to take it out when we see it and replace it with a binky, she now looks at us and takes out her binky....and puts the thumb back in. It is so stinkin' cute right now...but hopefully it doesn't last forever:) I just love this little girl!

Spray on Clothes???

All I can say is this is crazy! What do you think?

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So Many Dishes!

I have recently made the goal of trying new recipes more often. I have always loved to cook, ever since I was little. My mom would always let me help which I loved! I learned so much through the years from my mom about cooking. Even now, I call her with questions on what will work or how to make something. I love that she always knows what to do. This happened tonight as I was trying a new recipe for a fresh peach pie...you don't cook it, which I thought was cool because I really like the flavor of fresh peaches. As I was making a glaze...I think that's what you call it...I mixed it all together and brought it to a boil...then you have to let it rest for 10 minutes before adding the peaches. After the 10 minutes...I realized I forgot the sugar. AAHHHH! So...I called my mom. She calmed me down and helped me fix my problem. My glaze worked out great. I have to wait until tomorrow to taste the pie though since it has to sit over night...but...It looks delicious. Although I enjoy cooking and trying new recipes, the one thing I absolutely hate is all of the dishes I make. Tonight I tried 3 new recipes for dinner...and dessert. I made a chipotle chicken, cilantro lime rice, and the fresh peach pie. I had just cleaned my kitchen...in preparation for making a pie, and when I finished with dinner and the pie, my kitchen was a disaster. I think I used every pot, pan and mixing bowl I own. Oh well...it was worth trying the new recipes. The chicken was very good, but the rice....not very good. I looked up the recipe for Cafe Rio's lime rice, which I really enjoy, but it turned out one big mash of sticky rice. Does anybody have a good recipe they could share with me for rice...or for anything? I would love to try them.

Time Flies!

August 30, 2010. I can't believe it but my cute little girl is 12 weeks old already. She is growing so fast and I have wanted to put so many pictures on here, but...my stupid internet has not been working. ANNOYING! Oh well. Hopefully it will work long enough for me to put on at least one cute picture and that will have to suffice for now:) Ellie is getting a cute little personality and is really starting to notice things more and more. She is so smiley and happy most of the time. Tonight as I was rocking her, she just stared at me the whole time. I couldn't help but get misty eyed because of how much I love this little girl. She brings so much joy into our home and I can't imagine life without her. August 20, 2010. Here is a picture of Ellie in the morning. She is usually so smiley when I go in to get her. It's pretty hard to catch a smile on camera, but this was pretty good:)We had her 2 month check-up and immunizations. She did so well. She of course screamed with the shots, but as soon as I picked her up she calmed right down. She slept a lot the next day and had a fever, but not too bad. She also didn't sleep as good the next few nights, but that's to be expected...right? She weighed in at a whopping 12 lbs 8.2 oz. And is 22 inches long. I thought for sure she would be longer because she seems to be growing out of her clothes so quickly. I wonder if they measured wrong when she was born:) Anyways, that doesn't really matter, all that matters is that she is a healthy little girl and growing perfectly. I love everything about her and have so much fun being a mom! August 12, 2010. Here is a picture of the damage...huge band aids for such little legs.Here are a few things she does all the time.

• Smiles-all the time. We like to sing to her a lot and you can tell she is starting to recognize songs because she will get a huge grin when we sing certain songs-the frog song, popcorn popping and patty cake are her favorites
• You notice in the first picture, she has one hand in her hair...and the other in her mouth. She loves to play with her hair, especially when going to sleep. She also loves to suck on her hands...fingers...arm.
• Sticks her tongue out constantly-she has done this a lot before, but it is getting more. I think it's because of the frog song and we stick our tongues out a lot to see if she will do it:)
• Grasps onto her hands-she just started doing this last weekend. It is so cool to see her developing.
• Follows things with her eyes-she is getting very good at this
• She still wiggles all the time too. She has so much energy is amazes me, she never stops moving
• Giggled-this has only happened once with noise, but it was so cute. I can tell she really tries to laugh more, but no noise comes out, she just gets so excited and her whole body moves and then she sucks in air instead of making noise. Its really pretty funny

Ellie still doesn't sleep a ton during the day, but she is pretty happy and sleeps when she needs it, so I'm not concerned. She does pretty good at night too, so that is wonderful for me:) She really likes to be outside, or just to go somewhere each day. I can tell when she starts to get fussy that she is maybe feeling cooped up. I was really nervous at taking her grocery shopping by myself for some reason. I guess because I wasn't sure what to do if she threw a fit in the store....do I just leave my cart and walk out??? Anyways, I took her and she just looked around and talked the whole time. She doesn't seem to have any trouble in the grocery store...yet:) Side note....I always thought people would never really come up to me in the grocery store...and if they did that they would just comment and not get up in my child's face...but...the first time we went shopping, 3 different ladies came up and got right in Ellie's face and tried to get her to smile...strange how babies make women act differently isn't it? Oh well, she isn't scared of people yet and that just makes everyone love her so much more. Okay, so here are some pictures... August 26, 2010. I decided to make her hair as crazy as possible...it is just getting so long. I thought this was hilarious. Don't worry I put it down after the picture:)August 28, 2010. Patrick's sister got married this last weekend...we didn't get any pictures at the wedding except this one. Her colors were teal and orange. Don't we look so cute. Also, notice the cute gold sandal's Ellie has on. They were so long on her, but I had to squeeze them over her feet. I thought she would hate them, but shockingly, she just stared at them and would click her feet together. Maybe she will be a shoe girl.August 20, 2010. She really likes her bouncer. It has little toys that hang down and she will try to hit them. She isn't great with getting her hands to do what she wants, but she swings them over and over hitting the hanging rattle. It is pretty cool to watch her starting to develop those motor skills.August 14, 2010. I just love this picture. She just looks right at the camera. Every time I take a picture, she just stares at the camera. It's funny because I try to get her to look at me or Patrick to make her smile, but she is fascinated with the camera...I guess it's more interesting than mom or dad:) On another note...Patrick started grad school this last week for Instructional Technology. He had orientation last Thursday and Friday and class started Monday. He is going to be one busy boy this semester. I am so grateful for him and his willingness to take care of our family. He amazes me that he is willing to work full time to support us and go to school. I love him so much for this because I get to stay home with Ellie. Wish us luck with the next few semesters and staying sane:)